Attitudes towards culturally-ethnically heterogeneous groups of students and its meaning for individualized differentiated instruction in classroom context

Abstract

The present paper deals with the question to what extent aspects of the professional competence of teachers are important for diversity-sensitive teaching. It focuses on teachers’ attitudes and motivational orientation toward cultural-ethnic diversity and their impact on individualized differential teaching. Data of N = 250 teachers are examined using structural equation models and gender-specific differences are examined using multi-group structural equation models. The results indicate that attitudes and motivational orientations of teachers are important for diversity-sensitive teaching. An examination of gender-specific differences for the correlation patterns found showed only minor differences. The results highlight the importance of professional competence of teachers for diversity-sensitive teaching and are discussed with regard to their implications for research and practice.