READING RESPONSE 3

Accommodating Learning Styles in Prison Writing Classes

As soon as I read this article, I began questioning a few things: the fact the so called learning styles used with African Americans are also good for other racial groups;African Americans are not the only minorities who are more global than analytical learner, more cooperative than competitive among other things.  When the research about Learning Styles came about in 1974, it was highly criticized because the assessment tools utilized to perform the study differ from ethnic group to ethnic group.  So the accuracy of the study is questionable.

I don't know how accurate the cultural learning concept is.  For instance, I think that the way Glasgow' students were able to learn had nothing to do with their being African American.  In fact, it might have a lot to do with the fact that their being incarcerated called for certain pedagogical methods.  In other words, when Glasgow mentions that students "needed a lot of reassurance to overcome their insecurities about classroom behavior, that to me has nothing to do with their learning through Direct/explicit teaching because they are African American.  Rather, what it seems to be is that they are not able to display the appropriate classroom behavior because of the fact that they might be disconnected with the mores of the outside world, and a consequence they show insecurity.

Also, although Glasgow is just following the Cultural Learning Style Theory expanded by Castaneda and Ramirez and she makes it clear that the learning style of her African American students at Trumbull Correctional Institution is "presumed, I can't help but wonder if she is using the humanizing approach to help students learn better.  If that was the case, then why is she forbidding them to write about their personal experiences that have to do with their crimes? Why is that off limit to them?

The Trumbull Correctional Institution is a minimum security prison.  That is to say, that their inmates are not considered dangerous or have not committed hideous crimes. So forbidding inmates to write about their experiences to me is not humanizing at all and puts lots of constrains on the students writing creativity.  That's just a thought.