Hispanic Students

Hispanics/Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in postsecondary education. ⁵ Let's start with distinguishing between Hispanics and Latinos. It is important to know that Hispanics are those who have origins in Spanish-speaking countries regardless of race, whereas Latino, Latina, Latinx people are those who have origins in Latin American countries. 

Whether referred to as Mexican-American, Hispanic, or Latinx, these populations are present at ISU. A total of 542 Hispanic students were at ISU during Spring 2020 of whom 486 were undergraduate and rest of them graduate students. As shown on the infographic, 51.7% were students younger than 21 years old, 28.8% were between the age of 22 and 29, and 19.5% were 30 years and older. While about half of them were traditional students, the other half were adult learners. (Data source: ISU Institutional Research).

Traits of Hispanic/Latinx Students

• A majority of Latinx adults work more than 30 hours per week while enrolled as undergraduates
• About one-third of Latina (female) students are also caring for dependent children
• They respect authority figures and work hard
• Males are seen as dominant and strong, females as nurturing and self-sacrificing
• Often, Hispanic students represent low-socioeconomic status and are the first within their families to attend college
• To make ends meet, they often juggle work, school, and family responsibilities as many others
• One cultural value that is of paramount importance in most Hispanic cultures is family commitment
• Hispanic adolescents have a greater inclination to adopt their parents' religious beliefs, lifestyle, and stereotyped sex roles.
• Hispanic male adolescents often become independent from parents earlier than male adolescents of the general U.S. population. ¹

Learning Preferences

• Prefer meaningful learning activities based on familiar concepts ^2,4
• Desire materials that are linguistically as well as culturally appropriate ^2,3
• Wish to connect the knowledge learned in the classroom to the home, community, and professional environment ²
• Facilitate the expansion of their literacy skills and connect it to relevant content ²
• Feel more comfortable and confident about their work ²
• Prefer kinesthetic instructional resources, a high degree of structure, and variety of instructional strategies ¹
• Learn through interacting with peers ^1,2

Practical Tips

• Incorporate career readiness resources and assignments into the curriculum
• Provide examples, demonstrations, and optional resources that meet their needs; model cognitive learning processes in lectures ²
• Establish a welcoming community through frequent discussions, small group work, and peer-evaluation activities; these will also develop social, academic, and communication skills ²
• Develop group projects where students work with a partner ¹
• Decrease their anxiety by encouraging them frequently, reinforce what is possible ²
• Host optional workshops or study sessions online where participants can ask questions
• Implement multiple formative assessments (practice opportunities) to detect potential problems and offer solutions
• Utilize journal reflections that allow them to reflect on their achievements and serve as a platform to express themselves freely and openly
• Use multimedia to deliver content; add closed captioning and transcripts to videos, these will serve as study tools
• If possible, offer learning materials in both English and Spanish
• Develop proficiency in English by providing students with rich language experiences that integrate speaking, listening, reading, and writing ²
• Engage students in research opportunities to increase their interest in a specific field
• Recognize that someone with an accent may speak multiple languages and can articulate their thoughts more in writing than verbally ¹
• You can address self-image problems of Hispanic-American students that may result from a rejection of their ethnicity by using interventions that celebrate cultural diversity¹
• You may emphasize the learning style strengths of each individual and match instructional resources and methods to individual learning style preferences (by following universal design principles)¹

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1 Griggs, S., & Dunn, R. (1995). Hispanic-American students and learning styles. Emergency Librarian, 23(2), 11.
2 Padron, Y. N., Waxman, H. C., & Rivera, H. H. (2002). Educating hispanic students: Effective instructional practices. Practitioner Brief #5. University of California: Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence. Santa Cruz, CA. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.484.461&rep=rep1&type=pdf
3 Arbelo, F., Martin, K., & Frigerio, A. (2019). Hispanic students and online learning: Factors of success. HETS Online Journal, 9(2)
4 Jones, I. S., & Blankenship, D. (2018). Learning styles of hispanic students. Journal of Business & Educational Leadership, 8(1), 124–133.
5 Excellencia in Education. (2018). What works for latino students in higher education. Retrieved from https://www.edexcelencia.org/2018-What-Works-for-Latino-Student-Success-in-Higher-Education
Image: "Hispanic Students" by Ernesto Eslava is licensed under Pixabay License