Abstract:

The teacher’s attitude towards and respect for the diversity of students are important approaches to the organization of the educational process. Students’ differences are identified as an educational value. It evidently correlates with the policy of inclusive education developed both in Lithuania and other countries (Booth, Ainscow, 2016; Ališauskienė, Miltenienė, 2018). The diversity of students becomes an important precondition for the strengthening of the learners’ tolerance. At the same time, it becomes a pedagogical instrument ensuring the development of a collaborative culture in the classroom.

The theoretical concept of students’ collaborative culture in the classroom in the article has been justified revealing its relations to the change of children’s interpersonal relationships and the roles of learners in groups. The change of roles in the classroom is related to the changing teacher-student power relationships (Lenkauskaitė, Masiliauskienė, 2019), students’ freedom from the direct control of and dependence on the teacher (Andrews, 2003). In the context of the intensive change of the educational practice in Lithuania, there is a lack of scientific research dealing with the diversity of students as an “instrument” for the development of students’ collaborative culture.

The problem questions are formulated in the research: what meanings do teachers attribute to the concept “diversity of students”?; how do teachers use the diversity of students for the development of a collaborative culture in the classroom? In solving the problem questions, in February-May, 2019, the survey of 53 teachers working in general education schools was conducted applying the method of an unstructured written interview. The content of the interview consisted of several thematic blocks of questions: the promotion of students’ collaboration in the classroom, the expression of the students’ and teacher’s roles and relationships in the process of the learners’ collaboration, students’ involvement in problem analysis and solving while learning in collaborating teams. For the analysis of the research data the method of content analysis was applied.

The research has revealed that the diversity of students in the classroom is understood as an opportunity to promote students’ closer interrelationships when acting in teams. The data obtained allow stating that teachers use the diversity of the students of the classroom as a pedagogical aid: to develop students’ understanding that every person is individual; to develop students’ abilities to accept the differences of the team members as an advantage; to form students’ attitudes that diversity helps to seek for more effective problem solving.

The research has also revealed that the diversity of students enables the teacher to perform pedagogical actions important for the development of students’ collaborative culture in the classroom: organizing the educational process in the classroom respect for otherness is promoted; tolerance for differences is developed; students are encouraged to choose the ways and methods of their activity that are acceptable for them and correspond to their abilities, needs, and interests. The diversity of students in the classroom, as an instrument for children’s education in collaborating teams, is a developing pedagogical concept. Its expression in the educational practice should be significantly stronger in order to develop a collaborative culture in the classroom more effectively.

Keywords:

Diversity of Students, Collaborative Culture.