Introduction
Despite the fact that bias has been discussed and addressed by many researchers and policy-makers over recent years, it remains a serious issue in different areas of daily life. These can include politics, business and workplaces, mass media, and education. The latter is a highly important field to address in relation to bias elimination and prevention since discrimination in the classroom can affect students, teachers, and other parties involved (Annamma & Morrison, 2018). The types of classroom bias, as well as its causes and effects, will be discussed in this paper, and prevention measures to address it will be presented.
Examples of Classroom Biases
There are different types of implicit and explicit bias that can occur in the classroom. Some of the most common ones are gender-based bias, cultural bias, economic bias, and social bias. In addition, these types can include favoritism and religion-based discrimination. Gender bias in the educational setting can be defined as situations where teachers treat particular genders differently from others (Aguillon et al., 2020). One example of this can be the assignment of leadership roles in the classroom to male students exclusively. In turn, cultural bias, also referred to as racial bias, occurs when teachers demonstrate a particular treatment toward students with a specific cultural or ethnic background (Fan et al., 2019). For example, teachers may generalize against students with a specific cultural background based on misleading stereotypes or preconceived ideas about particular cultures.
Economic and social bias is usually based on discriminatory attitudes towards individuals who belong to a particular segment of the population. For example, teachers may discriminate against students from low-income or high-income families (Annamma & Morrison, 2018). Similarly, religion-related bias can be based on teachers’ or students’ ideas and harmful stereotypes about certain religions. Finally, favoritism can also be considered as a type of classroom bias, because it implies treating a particular student or a group of students differently from the other.
Effect of Classroom Bias on Teaching and Learning
Both explicit and implicit bias in the classroom can have a serious adverse impact on the overall environment and learning process. One of the effects of classroom bias is represented in situations where a group of students discriminated against is disciplined more compared to their peers. If a student’s behaviors are often corrected, they may form false perceptions about their own abilities and skills. On the contrary, if particular students are favored by the teacher, this may create high expectations of achievement that those students will experience in their adult life as well. Consequently, when they fail to perform certain tasks or achieve high results, they may feel discouraged and angry. As a result, ideas formed among students by the teachers with implicit discriminatory attitudes can interfere with those students’ learning process and long-term academic development.
Moreover, teaching can be affected by bias; for example, implicit discriminatory attitudes can alternate the way teachers grade their students, also leading to wrong representations of their abilities. In addition, teachers may pay insufficient attention to certain students they discriminate against. Even if the latter can perform at the same level in comparison to the favored students, their self-esteem and expectations of their own abilities can decrease significantly.
Prevention of Bias in the Classroom
Given the negative effect of classroom biases on teaching and learning, it can be stated that educational institutions are responsible for implementing measures that ensure a favorable learning environment for all students. Practices for teachers and students should be introduced that develop their sense of inclusion and involvement in the classroom. First, educators have to confront their personal biases and ingrained beliefs directly.
Educational administrators have to acknowledge the importance for teachers to self-reflect and re-assess their behaviors and practices in the classroom regularly (Hammond, 2014). The emphasis on inclusion, diversity, and bias prevention should be placed during faculty meetings. In addition, teachers should be encouraged to educate themselves on the common biases against different identity groups. This way, they will be able to understand their own attitudes better and identify existing biases.
Teachers can also apply listening skills and communicate with students to identify their needs and learn to acknowledge their experiences and perspectives. As a result, they will be able to eliminate any misleading assumptions they have and replace them with knowledge about common experiences and challenges expressed by their students (Harrison-Bernard et al., 2020). In turn, students can be taught to eliminate and prevent bias with the help of teaching instructions that focus on classroom inclusion and diversity.
Conclusion
It can be concluded that classroom bias remains one of the topical issues in the education system. While explicit bias may be easier to identify and eliminate, implicit discrimination is often more challenging to confront. There are different types of biases that can occur in the classroom; however, the main ones are gender-based discrimination, cultural and ethnic bias, economic and social bias, and favoritism. All of these types can be caused by ingrained beliefs and existing stereotypes about a particular group of people. In addition, all of them can have a serious adverse effect on teaching practices, as well as students’ academic and personal development. To eliminate and prevent classroom biases, teachers have to reflect on their attitudes, acknowledge students’ experiences, and educate themselves and others on inclusion and diversity in education.
References
Aguillon, S. M., Siegmund, G., Petipas, R. H., Drake, A. G., Cotner, S., & Ballen, C. J. (2020). Gender differences in student participation in an active-learning classroom. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 19(2), 12. Web.
Annamma, S., & Morrison, D. (2018). Identifying dysfunctional education Ecologies: A DisCrit analysis of bias in the classroom. Equity & Excellence in Education, 51(2), 114-131. Web.
Fan, Y., Shepherd, L. J., Slavich, E., Waters, D., Stone, M., Abel, R., & Johnston, E. L. (2019). Gender and cultural bias in student evaluations: Why representation matters. PLOS ONE, 14(2), e0209749. Web.
Hammond, Z. (2014). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students. Corwin Press.
Harrison-Bernard, L. M., Augustus-Wallace, A. C., Souza-Smith, F. M., Tsien, F., Casey, G. P., & Gunaldo, T. P. (2020). Knowledge gains in a professional development workshop on diversity, equity, inclusion, and implicit bias in academia. Advances in Physiology Education, 44(3), 286-294. Web.