Grasping the Interplay between the Verbal Cultural Diversity and Critical Thinking, and Their Consequences for African American Education

Abstract

The role language has in human learning has been discussed in the context of its impact on culture through African American communities. A strong link between thinking and language through the framework of question asking was reported. This essay improves upon Crogman and Trebeau's (Crogman and Trebeau Crogman, 2016) Generated Question Learning Model by incorporating language and comprehension as major tenets. The proposed argument is centered on language as the determinant of structured thinking, which in essence brings about learning through sensory experience. Further, the case was made for issues that may emerge in learning when the cultural norms of the learner are ignored.

Exploring the Relationship between Critical Thinking and Shona Culture during Teaching and Learning of Young Learners 3-8 Year Olds.

“…They believe that culture emphasises beliefs and values which are often deeply rooted in a group's history and traditions. Crogman (2017) noted that in South Africa, children's diverse backgrounds within families, neighborhoods and sociocultural environments provide them with varied experiences and opportunities to learn. Culture, however is not static but continuously changes, extended or transformed by the culture's bearers.…”

Popularizing Visuo-Spatial Training for Reading Challenges: A Call to Experts in Support of Language and Non-language-based Cognitive Skills Strengthening

“…Another issue with remediation school programs is the lack of consideration for cultural language background or even prior experience. This systemic oversight frustrates minority children (Crogman, 2017), which may result in complexifying the psychological phenomena associated with reading challenges, adding to any resistance behavior to LB approaches to reading remediation. Supporting that fact is the broad research showing that minority children are found in larger number in special education which oftentimes, has less to do with reading disorder than a misunderstanding of language patterns and culture on the part of teachers and support staff.…”

“…Further, for a child to achieve adequate reading proficiency much tutoring and practice are required (Hutzler et al, 2004), and they tend to be diagnosed as dyslexic when they experience reading difficulty after such tutoring has occurred. Crogman (2017) has argued that much of this is due to the failure of finding/providing the right type of instruction, which plays a forgotten essential part in the development of readers' skills (Bourke, 2018;Nadelson et al, 2019). Instruction thus has not accounted for the uniqueness of children's brains or their cultural-language development.…”

“…Is the brain dysfunctional? Crogman (2017Crogman ( , 2019 has argued that dyslexia is a result of how humans formulate language, but language was not always used by humans. Brains were not made for reading, playing chess, or for singing, but more so to manage tasks and compute how to maneuver in the environment.…”

“…The premise is that the instructor and student's languages must match to broader extents in order for optimal learning to take place. Indeed, LB skills and their correspondence between instructor and student are related to: thinking/critical thinking, pedagogy, curiosity, comprehension, sensory learning, and problem solving (Crogman, 2017 and Figure 2). Crogman reminds us that this is already a struggle for the common student, at least in our currently ill-fitted educational and heavily didactical practices.…”