Constructivism in the Shade of Racial, Ethnic, and Special Needs Diversity Students

Abstract

The last decades the population of learners has dramatically changed in the majority of western societies. Students with diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds as well as students that fall into the scope of special education needs have enrolled in schooling without being able to perform competitively in science compared to the mainstream students. A prominent reason, among others, lies on the fact that the cultural origins of these pupils are often not taken into account into the teaching process. It seems that these children are taught science in school without any consideration, from both their teachers and the curriculum, about their diversity background and their unique life experiences that have inevitably affected their way of viewing the natural world around them. The present paper aspires to shed light on this issue and act as a call for science education pioneers to expand constructivism theory in order to address student diversity in science classroom.