Should a different teaching style be designed for aboriginal children?

To discuss about indigenous education, the first thing comes to my mind is majority versus minority. This brings up my thought about left-handed and right-handed children. The education systems are developed for the majority group who are right handed. Teachers do not receive formal training on how to teach left-handed students properly because methods are developed for right-hand learners, unless they are also left-handed who are able to understand the difficulties (Milsom, 1995). Consequently, these left-handed children, generally are identified as right brain dominance people, may not fully utilise of the learning style, which learnt in the classroom setting.

The aborginal child is similar to the situation of left-handed children in a mainstream education system, who have some differences in memories and cognitive or learning styles. Educators are supposed to maximise the students’ learning potential regardless of their cultural background. Overall, challenges of teachers from mainstream society to work with culture diversity, especially working with aboriginal children have not been adequately examined (Nickels & Piquemal, 2005). Aboriginal children may have difficulties in their studies as they do not conform to the mainstream culture on how schools defines what constitutes learning (Delpit & Dowdy, 2002).

According to the report of Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching (1998), teacher training seems not in depth for guiding aboriginal students. It is stated that beginning teachers agreed the addition of mandatory elements in their courses relating to aboriginal education, multicultural education, gender education and special education. They reported that the courses have focus on issues faced by targeted populations. However, the specific strategies on how to address the issues were deficient.

For example, group goals attained by working together in cooperation are encouraged by aboriginal culture, whereas western culture would regard it as permissive and lack of independent. This might have negative effect on the student learning and influence their interaction with non-aboriginal students (Armstrong & Patterson, 1975). Without understanding of aboriginal culture, cultural discontuity occurs as aboriginal students being forced to behave in ways that are incompatible with the values and norms of their own culture (Nickels & Piquemal, 2005). In addition, their research also demonstrated that aborignal students did not take initiative to raise their hands to answer a questions as often as non-aboriginal children. Showing ability of knowing knowldge was often contrary to aborginal behavoral norms as one should not showing oneself is better than others (Philip, as cited in Nickels & Piquemal, 2005).

In order to solve these issues, experienced teachers were modifying their teaching to meet the varied needs of students in their classrooms. For instance, team-teaching with English as a second language (ESL) teachers and literacy support for aboriginal students (MACQT ,1998). Murtagh (1982) investigated about Creole-speaking aborginal-Australian children in education. They were divided into two groups, bilingual school that has medium of language instruction through English and Creole, and monolingual purely instruction through english only. The result showed that the superiority of bilingual schooling over monolingual schooling for Creole-speaking students in terms of oral language proficiency in both the mother tongue, Creole and the second language, English. In fact, Cummins (cited in Murtagh, 1982) supported similar finding by discovered that students schooled bilingually had progressively greater success in learning compared with their counterparts schooled monolingually.

All in all, it is suggested that a different curricula and teaching style should be designed for aboriginal children. Teachers needs to understand their culture difference and playing important role in helping these aboriginal children to absorb knowledge effectively.


References:

Armstrong, H., & Patterson, P. (1975). Seizures in Canadian Indian children: Individual family and community approaches. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 20, 247-255.
Delpit, L., & Dowdy, J. K. (2002). The skin that we speak. New York: New Press.
Milsom, L. (1995). Left handed children are they losing out? Education Medica International, 32, 107-108.
Ministerial Advisory Council on the Quality of Teaching(1998). Towards Greater Professionalism: Teacher educators, teaching and the curriculum. Retrieved March 30, 2008, from https://www.det.nsw.edu.au/reviews/macqt/macqfi.htm
Murtagh, E. J. (1982). Creole and English used as languages of instruction in bilingual education with aborginal australians: some research findings. International Journal Social Language, 36, 15-33.
Nickels, B., & Piquemal, N. (2005). Cultural congruence in the education of and research with young aboriginal students: Ethnical implications for classroom researchers. Alberta Journal of Educational Research, 51, 118.