'Overwork' kills Toyota employee

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7499280.stm

(published in Singapore Today- 11 July 2008)

The engineer was working on a new version of the popular Toyota Camry. One of Toyota's senior car engineers died from working too many hours, a Japanese labour bureau has found.

The 45-year-old man was developing a hybrid version of Toyota's successful Camry line at the time of his death. In the two months leading up to his death, the man averaged more than 80 hours of overtime per month, his wife's lawyers said.

Workers in Japan often put in very long hours and "sudden death from overwork" is referred to as karoshi. The ruling will allow his family to collect benefits from his work insurance, his wife's lawyers said.

The worker, whose name was not given, regularly worked nights and weekends and was frequently sent abroad. He died of ischemic heart disease in January 2006. In a statement, Toyota offered its condolences and said it would monitor the health of its employees.

Workplace stress is common all over the world, but it is a huge problem in Japan, where karoshi was first recognised as a phenomenon in 1987.

Last year, a court in central Japan ordered the government to pay compensation to Hiroko Uchino, the wife of a 30-year-old Toyota employee who collapsed at work and died in 2002.


http://www.gt.com.sg/press/press_290507StressRelease.html

Seven in ten Singapore business leaders are more stressed compared to previous year

29 May 2007, Singapore – In Asia, Singapore ranks 4th in the stress league table with 69% (7 out of 10) of the respondents indicating that they are more stressed this year than the previous year. Globally Singapore is in 6th position. Out of top 10 countries with the greatest increase in stress level, 7 are from Asia. This highlights the mounting stress levels in this region.

Mainland China’s business leaders report the highest level of stress in the world with eight out of ten (84%) reporting higher levels of stress compared to a year ago. Mainland China is followed by Taiwan (82%), India (79%) and Russia (76%). The Grant Thornton International Business Report (IBR) which covers the opinions of 7,200 privately owned businesses in 32 countries found that 56% of business leaders worldwide feel their stress levels have increased in the last year.

The increased stress level can be attributed to the favourable economic growth. In the Grant Thornton International Super Growth Index released in March 2007, Singapore ranked 9th globally; up from previous year’s 17th position. The number of “super growth” companies in Singapore increase by a significant 10% in 2006 to 21% in 2007; chalking-in the highest percentage in Asia. A big worry for businesses is raw material costs. 60% of Singapore businesses identify this as having a major impact on cost pressures

Business confidence is at an all time high in the Asian region with Singapore amongst the top four Asian economies with India, Philippines and Mainland China in the Optismism/Pessimision findings reported in the IBR January 2007, where business leaders were surveyed on their views and outlook for 2007. Such high business confidence is likely to lead to a manpower crunch as businesses compete for manpower skill. And combined with worries about competition from other emerging markets such as China and India, stress felt by Singapore business leaders are inevitably pushed up.

Mr Kon Yin Tong, Managing Partner, Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton interpreted: “The need to grow their business and improve the bottom line has put an ever increasing pressure on the senior executives in Singapore. The stress level appears to be a reflection of the pace of growth in Singapore as these leaders strive to take advantage of domestic and global economic expansion.”

In comparison European business leaders are the least stressed with just 27% of Swedish business leaders reporting an increase in stress level, followed by Ireland (35%) and the UK, the Netherlands and France (all 37%). European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) regions show an average of 43% claiming increases in stress, compared to 73% of respondents in East Asia.

Working hours

Despite the significant increase in the amount of stress, Singapore business leaders do not clinch the top positions for the average number of hours worked in the IBR research. At an average of 54 working hours per week, Singapore is ranked 9th. In contrast, Australia ranks 4th, with an average working week of 56 hours but has a stress increment of only 41%, below the global level of 56%. This suggests that the stress level is not necessary directly linked to the number of hours worked.

The 54-hour work week that Singapore business leaders have is almost the global average of 53 hours. Business leaders in emerging economies tend to work the longest hours with India and Argentina at the top of the league table, both at 57 hours a week, followed by Armenia, Australia and Botswana (all 56 hours a week). Italian business leaders work the shortest hours (47) a week in the world.

Commenting on the findings, Mr Kon Yin Tong, Managing Partner, Foo Kon Tan Grant Thornton said: “Globalisation and increasing technological advances have increased the pressure on business leaders to 'always be contactable'. The challenge for business leaders is how they can improve modern working practices to allow time to 'switch off' from the strains of increasingly demanding business lives - while remaining competitive.”

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Obviously, we are "selling" our health to the companies. Do you think that these companies would appreciate your sacrifice after you paying the cost of your life?

It doesn't means that I am not serious in my work. Just feel a bit sad to encounter such news...

Singapore is well known as a kiasu country, and last year I came across a news report headline in Today:"Singapore has become one of the top country in Asia-in terms of long working hours..."

Another news reported that there is a higher demand in Singapore Orthopedic Surgeons nowadays. It has been noticed that growing in numbers of office workers to complaint about backache and related problems (thanks to PC).

Ironically, you work so hard, and later spend $ to cure your illness related to the side effect of overwork. This is similiar to the obese problems: you spend $ to buy slimming products while you eat too much...

Born into brothels

"The men who enter our building are not so good.They are drunk, they come inside and shout and swear. "

"The woman asked me:" When are you going to join the line?" They say it won't be long."

"I keep thinking that if i could go some place else and get education, I wonder what I could become."

"We don't have the money to live, let alone for studies."

"One day I went to Puja's house and saw her dad was beating up her mom, I asked Puja about it, she said:"My mom didn't give money to my dad for his drinking, so he beat her."

"He smokes all day, but even then, I try to love him a little."

"One has to accept life as being sad and painful. That's all. "

In Calcutta's red-light district, there over 7,000 women and girls working as prostitutes. Often forced into the trade by poverty, abandonment or the rampant kidnapping business which transports young girls into the sex industry from Nepal and Bangladesh, they come from all castes. But they all descended the social scale to the status of pariahs, without any government protection.

Only one group, perhaps, has a lower standing: Their children. Living inside the rat-infested brothels, routinely beaten, made to work, to leave their rooms when their mothers have a customer, they are children without hope, without childhoods. The girls are often "turned out" as prostitutes by their own parents at the age of fourteen or younger, and the boys frequently become drug dealers or pimps. They are children alone in the world, without advocates.

Zana Briski, became involved in the lives of these children in 1997 when she first began photographing sex workers in Sonagachi. Living in the brothels for months at a time, she quickly developed a relationship with many of the kids who, often terrorized and abused, were drawn to the rare human companionship she offered. Photography helps to boost their self-esteem and confidence.

Fascinated by her camera, she let them shoot some pictures. It would be great, she thought, to see the world through their eyes. It was at that moment that she gave birth to the idea of offering a photographic workshop for the children of prostitutes. To do so would involve overcoming nearly insurmountable obstacles -- brothel owners, pimps, police, local politicians, mafiosi, and corrupt NGOs. "No one wants to empower the children. No one wants them to use a camera," Briski said.

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November 2007 – Zana Briski http://www.zanabriski.com/

When I first went to the brothels of Calcutta I had no idea what I was doing. Circumstances had led me there and I had a deep visceral reaction to the place. It was as if I recognized it on a very personal level.

It took me two years to get inside, to be able to live in a brothel. I knew this was the only way I would move from visitor to resident, to fully experience, as much as possible, what it was like for the women and children living there. It was a difficult but precious experience and one for which I will always be grateful. I had the opportunity to understand lives lived behind closed doors, to help — when it was asked of me — in any way I could, and to communicate powerful stories with the outside world.

It has been my dream, since the beginning of the project, to inspire others to feel, to notice, to challenge, to take action. Some of the most inspiring moments I have had are at screenings of Born into Brothels at schools across the country. American children are riveted by the kids from Calcutta. They connect with them through the film in a way only kids can. Kids want to share, to know more, to get involved. This is why I wanted to build a curriculum around the film, so that it can be a catalyst for awareness and change. Amnesty International, in partnership with Kids with Cameras, has made this happen. I am deeply grateful to them for this.

In the film I say that I am not a social worker, or even a teacher. I am someone who follows my heart and puts myself in the 'shoes' of others. This is something we all can do. You don't need to go to Calcutta to notice what is happening around you, who needs your compassion, be it an animal, a friend, a stranger.

After all, it is up to us to make the world a better place.

After earning a master's degree at the University of Cambridge, Zana studied documentary photography at International Center of Photography in New York. In 1995 she made her first trip to India, producing a story on female infanticide. In 1997 she returned to India and began her project on the prostitutes of Calcutta's red light district, which led to her work with the children of prostitutes. Zana has won numerous awards and fellowships including George Soros' Open Society Institute Fellowship, an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, the Howard Chapnick Grant for the Advancement of Photojournalism and first prize at the World Press Photo Foundation Competition.

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"I used to want to be a doctor.
Then I wanted to become an artist.
There is nothing called hope in my future. "
After got to learn photography, he said:"Now I want to be a photographer". Avijit, 19, began studying in the U.S. three years ago. He is currently finishing his senior year at a private high school. Over the past two summers, he has participated in prestigious film programs through the Sundance Institute and NYU Tisch. He plans to attend university in the U.S. this fall and is interested in studying both medicine and film. In the website, it is noted that he has been accepted into NYU.

Kochi, 16, stayed at the Sabera Home for Girls for five years. She has chosen to continue her studies in India and she will enroll in school this spring.

Manik, 16, and Shanti, 17, are both still studying at FutureHope, where they are doing very well. Zana:" Auntie teaches us so well that everything goes into our brain. We like doing photography so much that we forget to do our work!"I love Shanti's photos.

Puja and Gour are believed to still be living in the red-light district but have lost contact with Kids with Cameras. Gour's work:" Running" is used by the website. Gour:" want to show in pictures how people live in this city. I want to put across the behavior of man." The old man on the street is Puja's work. Puja is a bold girl to take pictures and got away from people's scolding. Few generations of her family, her great grandmom, grandma, mother are prostitutes. She dress well, and obviously not poor, but would lead to prostituition. The documentary mentioned that Puja's mother withdrew her from the school. I really don't understand why would her mother hope that her daughter to be stucked in the vicious cycle. Perhaps they simply get used to the prostitution life.

Watch this documetary "Born into Brothels" for free: 83 minutes film~ http://freedocumentaries.org/film.php?id=125 I have watched it last sunday night on Arts Central Channel(Singapore TV). It is a great documentary that one should not miss. For more information or make a donation to improve their life, please visit : http://www.kids-with-cameras.org/

(note: the writing above are mostly adapted from relevant website & documentaries. )

Preference for sons in Asia could have severe social consequences, UNFPA studies warn

http://intranet.unescap.org/esid/psis/population/popheadline/321/art3.asp

Prenatal son selection in several Asian countries could result in severe social consequences – such as a surge in sexual violence and trafficking of women – in the coming years, according to new studies commissioned by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

As girls and women become outnumbered by men as a result of ultrasound or amniocentesis to determine the sex of foetuses and abort unwanted females, more males will be unable to find wives and pressures to conform and comply will increase, the studies noted.

“Sex ratio imbalances only lead to far-reaching imbalances in the society at large”, UNFPA Executive Director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid said in a statement delivered by Deputy Executive Director Purnima Mane at the Fourth Asia Pacific Conference on Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights held in Hyderabad, India from 29 to 31 October (see page 4).

“And in response, we must carry forward the message that every human being is born equal in dignity, worth and human rights.”

Preference for sons is deeply rooted in many Asian countries for both cultural and economic reasons. If dowries must be paid, daughters could be viewed as a liability, and older parents typically rely on their sons for support and to perform last rites or ancestor worship.

The above-cited studies (available from http://www.unfpa.org/gender/case_studies.htm) warn that unless Viet Nam and Nepal adopt response measures, they, too, will face problems similar to those of India and China, the countries with the most dramatic imbalance between the births of boys and girls.

In China, 120 males – and up to 130 in several provinces – were born for every 100 females in 2005, while in India, the 2001 census revealed that 108 males – and up to 120 in some northern and western areas – were born for every 100 females.

“Viet Nam is in almost the same situation now as China was 10 years ago,” the studies said, adding that the South-East Asian nation’s sex ratio at birth could become gravely imbalanced within a decade.

Meanwhile in southern Nepal, researchers found that most people are aware that they could access ultrasound clinics and abortion providers in India willing to defy laws prohibiting sex selection. In both Viet Nam and Nepal, researchers interviewed officials and held focus groups, concluding that the preference for sons was pervasive, and that those who wanted to avoid bearing daughters could do so easily.

Currently in China, the “Care for Girls” programme which combines public education with practical steps such as bolstering support for older people could soon be rolled out nationally, and in India, civil society groups are making great efforts to raise public awareness and new laws are being codified to slash discriminatory inheritance rules and curb domestic violence.

Similar initiatives are necessary to stem the tide of the issue in both Viet Nam and Nepal, the studies said.

Motivation in education system

Motivation, is part of the drive to get people to be more hardworking, more persistent to work out towards his or her goal. Learning behaviours is a product of either intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Hayamizu, 2007). Just thinking of how Thomas Edison able to keep on trying to invent light bulb after failed for uncountable times. His famous quote:” "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration" might reveal his belief on hard work contributing success, and what is motivating him to be the great inventor in history? Motivation is an interesting topic to explore.

Concerning the question in studying university, I would think that studying a degree is like a culture norm. It is a trend in Malaysia, and Singapore. If someone finishes his or her secondary school education, it is almost inevitably to further studies to specialise in a particular field unless the result is too poor. Without a good qualification, it is hard to negotiate with the boss to get higher pay, and demand for promotion. However, in olden days, there were fewer university graduates, and very few women getting higher education. The olden society doesn’t take university certificate as a requirement to get into job market, especially before industry revolution. Woman was not encouraged to study smart in school as well. As globalisation supports knowledge economy, the modern culture trend needs more high skill people with specialisation to have a university degree.

Initially, taking psychology course was not my first choice. Previously I studied Computer Science, and my degree is an external US degree that required to study liberal arts subjects: Sociology and Drama. From there, I started to grow interest into Psychology as I learnt to analyse personality in the different drama plots , and got to know more about social knowledge and human behaviour. “A Streetcar Named Desire” drama script caught my attention by contrasting the culture clash of two social class. A so-called high-class lady who developed personality problem and got into schizophrenia eventually. This drama is not just a movie, but it reflexes the culture, social and psychological problems. Few years later, I came to Singapore to work and decided to study part time in Psychology. I study psychology as an interest, and this motivation is closed to Abraham Maslow’s self-actualisation needs. Self-actualisation is associated with human fulfillment and personal satisfaction (Shiraev & Levy, 2007). Psychology is meaningfulness, with depth sense of critical thinking. I appreciate psychology knowledge that allows me to be a better person and improve my English too. Personally, I always stumble in English as it is not as good as my first language, Mandarin. This motivates me to improve my English language by reading and writing more.

Should motivation be an important factor to be considered in designing our curricula (schooling system in general)? Yes, definitely. Without motivation, it is harder to get a better achievement and improvement in studies. Facilitating motivation and success in school is strongly encouraged. For instance, a Self-Regulation Empowerment Program (SREP), that school professionals can use to allow adolescent students to take on in more positive, self-motivating way of learning. Consequently, students learn to set goals, select and monitor strategy effectiveness, make strategic attributions, and adjust their goals and strategies (Cleary & Zimmerman, 2004). In fact, students who learned self-regulation processes during learning such as goal setting, self-monitoring, and self-reflection processes have better achievement and motivation (Schunk as cited in Cleary & Zimmerman, 2004).

This is not surprising fact as self-control people might have better intrinsic motivation but not comes from external environment. For example, students who only study harder when the parents offers reward. In my personal experience in teaching secondary students, those who score good marks are typically have full concentration in lesson, teacher’s attitude in rewarding seems does not affect much in their motivation to get good result. In contrast, poorer results were associated with poor class students who only get motivated to pay more attention in class if I promised some rewards or showed a fierce look. Hayamizu (2007) supported this situation. It was stated that intrinsic reasons were significantly not related to attributions of external causes and ability.

Understanding motivation also helps to know more about student behaviour. It was found that students who had more extrinsic motivation, such as external reasons, inclined to explain their failure is due to external causes. They tend to use maladaptive coping behaviour as well. However, for the students who scores lower than the means for all types of motivation were classified into the amotivational group. Amotivational group were motivated nether extrinsically nor intrinsically. The self-awareness of amotivational persons is lower, thus do not have self-evaluation (Hayamizu, 2007). It is necessarily to explore more on the amotivational students who are not motivated easily by other persons,. This is especially crucial to motivate amotivational students who scores less satisfactory academic result.

References:

Cleary, T. J., & Zimmerman, B. J. (2004). Self-regulation empowerment program: A school-based program to enhance self-regulated and self-motivated cycles of student learning. Psychology in the Schools, 41, 537-550.

Hayamizu, T. (2007). Between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: Examination of reasons for academic study based on the theory of internazation. Journal Psychological Research, 39, 98-108.

Shiraev, E., & Levy, D. (2007). Cross-cultural psychology: Critical thinking and comtemporary applications (3rd ed.). Boston: Ally and Bacon.

Display rules in M'sia/Singapore

Emotion is an interesting topic for social scientific investigation as it explains as a notion about our true selves; the self that, after all the thinking and interacting are done, feels the rage, love, despair (Boellstorff & Lindquist, 2004). In terms of methodological individualism, emotions are framed as the property of persons. Emotion can be universal, or are influenced by its social experience which namely ‘context.’ Emotion’s location in culture are acknowledged in broad terms (Wierzbicka, 1999).

Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural society, which consists of 3 main ethic Asian communities, Chinese, Malays, Indian and other races. English is the main language used in Singapore, followed by Chinese language. However, Chinese culture in south East Asian countries still deeply rooted with Confucianism. Emotional and psychological matter may be affected by the mother tongue culture (Woo et. al., 2004). Confucian cultures emphasize on the social order and show respect for higher rank people, like the elderly. For example, one should not shout at parents, especially in public places. However, it is common to see the other way round like as what Sonja pointed out, scolding and beating kids in public when they are disobedient. Anyway, expressing emotion freely is possible within same ranking like friends or colleagues.

Besides, languages often considered as part of culture, and researchers found that all speakers of a language share a cognitive structure for emotion (Wierzbicka, 1999). I agree on this point. In the national secondary school for Malaysia, Chinese students are generally from two types of education stream. One type receives Chinese primary school education where chinese is the medium of instruction, and study Malay and English as second and third language subjects; another type study in a national Malay school, majority Malay students where malay language is the medium of instruction, and study English as a second language. It is widely recognized that two groups of Chinese students have differences in their emotion, way of communication and behaviour. The first group are typical Chinese who are more indirect communicator where emotions are hidden and subtler. In contrast, the latter group who are mixing with Malay classmates are more straightforward and blunt in communication and express emotions more directly. They are more outgoing and easy going as it is easier to understand and get along well compared with the typical Chinese students.

Public display of affection is different across culture and countries. When I first came to Singapore, I was a bit startled to see couples hugging and kissing freely in public. In my home country, Malaysia as an Islamic country, dominated by Malays, public display of affection is very rare and forbidden by Islamic law. Few years ago, a Chinese young couple aged around 23 years old was prosecuted by the local town council. The town officers claimed that the couple was hugging and kissing in a park was indication of indecent behaviour. This case was eventually brought up to the court and became a hot topic for debate at that time. I believe that such event sounds queer to westerner. Conservative culture doesn’t encourage openly express of emotion.

Anthropical study of this topic makes interesting reading. It may explain why westerners’ common comment of Asians being inscrutable.

References:
Boellstorff, T., & Lindquist, J. (2004). Bodies of emotion: Rethinking culture and emotion through southeast asia. Routledge Journals, 437–444.

Wierzbicka, A. (1999). Emotions across languages and cultures: Diversity and universals. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wooa,B. S. C., Chang, W. C., Funga, D. S. S., Koh, J. B. K., Leong, J. S. F., Kee, C. H. Y., Cheryl, K.F., & Seah, C. K. F. (2004). Development and validation of a depression scale for Asian adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 27, 677–689.

Importance of cultural context in defining and understanding intelligence

Despite much controversy over the accurate definition of intelligence, most researchers agree that it is only a concept labelled by a word, or several related concepts represented by a word (Howard, 1993). This theory defines concept as a person’s unique and individual information about a category, where the category is considered as a set of things in the world. Generally, there are three major concept of intelligence: Spearman’s g, as a property of behaviour and as a set of abilities. Each concept have different information, and should be used in various ways (Howard, 1993).

I took the Koori Test and could not understand almost all questions. Everything sounds like ‘alien’ language to me. As expected, I scored badly with merely 40 marks, which stands for below average intelligence. Of course, this test clearly demonstrated that intelligence is bounded by the culture context. Sternberg (2004) further supported this by stating that work on intelligence within a single culture may fail to fairly acknowledging range of skills and knowledge that may constitute intelligence broadly defined. It is also more likely to draw wrong conclusion with over generalisation problem. The knowledge, which is learned in one culture context may not applicable to others who have different culture. For example, long time ago I took a IQ test online from a popular website, which claimed to be scientifically accurate IQ test. I thought I am supposed to be a language type who shouldn’t score badly for language ability, but the IQ test only able to test my English standard, which is second language for me. In the way, I believe that IQ test is very hard to determine one’s actual ability by using one standard test of intelligence for universal.

In terms of individual differences, everyone may have different knowledge regarding a particular category. Thus, it is inevitably creating a culture-free standard IQ test seems to be impossible mission. Even psychologist manages to come out with a measure standard of intelligence, doing translation into different language might be slightly different from the original text, which cause test bias. From the Koori Test, it shows that culture shapes language. For example, in Chinese language, it comes up with a complex vocabulary with detail classifications to address different relatives as Chinese culture emphasize on big family and stronger kinship. In contrast, in English, we use very general terms such as uncle, aunty, and cousins to describe relatives. This is probably due to western culture is more individualistic on one nucleus family compared to Chinese culture.

Different racial will probably have different culture, and whether racial differences in IQ are due to differences in intellectual ability, or to differences in exposure to information is a question (Fagan & Holland, 2007). Intelligence, was defined by Fagan and Holland (2007) as information processing. In fact, this definition is encouraging a better awareness of racial equality in intelligence, hence provides a multidisciplinary and broad understanding of intelligence. They concluded that cultural differences in the condition of information explain for racial differences in IQ. This might be helpful to explain why certain racial have higher intelligence and cognitive achievements than the other racial. Lynn and Longley (2006) suggested that the over-representation of Jews among Nobel prize winners possibly partly due to the higher average Jewish IQ. The reason behind it could be due to environmental and genetic theories of the high Jewish IQ, as for other ethnic and racial differences (Lynn & Longley, 2006).


References:

Fagan, J. F., & Holland, C. R. (2007). Racial equality in intelligence: Predictions from a theory of intelligence as processing. Intelligence, 35, 319–334.
Howard, R. W. (1993). On what intelligence is. British Journal of Psychology, 84, 27-37.
Lynn, R., & Longley, D. (2006).On the high intelligence and cognitive achievements of Jews in Britain. Intelligence, 34, 541–547.
Sternberg, R. J. (2004). Culture and intelligence. American Psychologist, 59, 325-338.

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.