4. WHAT IS COMMUNICATIVE
COMPETENCE
The concept of communicative competence
involves not only knowledge of the code, but the
knowledge of cultural aspects as it is the field of
communication.
5. IN SERVICE
The term in-service refers to teachers already working in
schools, with the explicit purpose of updating and renewing
their knowledge, technical skills, etc., for main-training
and/or enhancing their efficiency. In fact, the relevance of
in-service education can be understood only when viewed in
this context.
6. Pre service
* Educating pre-service teachers to develop multicultural
awareness, knowledge, and skills for teaching diverse
students is a major responsibility of teacher education
program coordinators and teacher educators.
* Numerous studies have discussed and explored the
characteristics of teacher preparation that improve pre-
service teachers’ competency to teach diverse students.
7. Findings
The study found that three characteristics of teacher
preparation for diversity reported by pre-service teachers:
1) classroom as a learning community.
2) instructor modeling constructivist and culturally-
responsive teaching.
3) field experience for understanding diverse students were
significantly associated with positive changes in pre-service
teachers’ beliefs about diversity in both personal and
professional contexts.
8. Conclusions
Creating a sense of community in classrooms,
and modeling constructivist and culturally
responsive teaching are likely to promote
positive beliefs about diversity among pre-
service teachers. In addition, field experiences
should promote pre-service teachers’
interactions with people from diverse
backgrounds, assign a mentor to support their
learning experience and promote self
reflection, and provide opportunities to
understand the connection with diversity
coursework.
