10/15 Blog
Funds of knowledge framework Vs. cultural modeling framework

In the article of Modeling as a Multidimensional Cultural Space, author Carol D. Lee analyzed and compared two framework – funds of knowledge and cultural modeling. She prefers to use cultural modeling framework in urban schools because most urban schools have a larger amount of low-income and minority students and "have much lower overall graduation rates" (p32) compare to suburb and rural schools. Direct instruction and basic skills orientation are used widely, and thought is very necessary for teaching curricula. They are both the basic strategies for solving complex problems. But, the question is by only using direct instruction and basic skills orientation is sufficient to help students reach their learning goals? Of course not.

"The Funds of Knowledge framework focus largely on practices of adults in a community, examining the cognitive workload in such practices. The goal is to understand how youth's peripheral participation in these practices can be recruited to support school-based learning" (p34). It is unnecessary always make the connections with students and their family on the top all the time when teaching in a classroom setting, but it is beneficial, based on my understanding of funds of knowledge framework. Funds of knowledge are more focus on the families' inner culture and students and their families' daily routine, such as how to prepare dinner and how to do garden work. By applying funds of knowledge framework theorem, teachers have a closer connection with students' families and deeper understanding students' culture, which both beneficial for the students and teaching practice. I recall that the funds of knowledge framework was very popular and used very frequently by the teachers when I was an elementary school student. Teachers liked to visit students' home and talked with their parents to understand more about the students' out of school lives.  They wanted to find out some clues through communicated with parents and observed students' activities at home which would help them adjust their teaching method.

Cultural Modeling framework has some common ideas with Funds of knowledge framework but also has different focuses.  For example, they both emphasize the cultural influence, but the direction of the influence is different – Funds of knowledge is from students' peripheral participants to the students themselves, while Cultural Modeling "concentrates on the practices in which the youth directly engage out of school" (p34), which is the first different set of foci in cultural modeling. By using Cultural modeling framework, teachers would welcome students embed their prior cultural knowledge into their school learning to support the subject matter learning. I believe that this framework is a very powerful tool that could be used to help students, especially those minority students, to engage in the classroom activities and academic learning, because students are familiar with their everyday knowledge and will feel comfortable to use it in the designed learning environment, which will promote outstanding learning and teaching outcome. The second difference in cultural modeling is "to address the specific and very different demands of subject matter learning". "This requires not only detailed maps of disciplinary domains but also a careful analysis of the practices of youth culture" (p35). Looking for where is the connection point between the student's everyday knowledge and school-based knowledge are essential and important. Also, guiding students on how to make the connection on what they already know to what they need to know will make them have more interest in learning.

Teaching is never easy, especially in urban circumstances which contain diversity cultural background. Beside the pedagogical knowledge, teachers should aware students learning styles, students language socialization, and their development and so on.