Friday 6 May 2011

8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning

  
The challenge in teaching for Indigenous learning styles begins with ourselves. How well we know our own perspectives and how we cater for others through our pedagogy is vital to the success of our student's understanding and future applications of the knowledge.

8 Ways is a fantastic site that not only documents Aboriginal Pedagogy but has useful resources which show ways this has been implemented by teachers around Australia. There are examples from a wide range of Key Learning Areas, from both Indigenous and Mainstream teachers.

'8 Ways' is built around the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning:

Tell a story. Make a plan. Think and do. Draw it. Take it outside. Try a new way. Watch first, then do. Share it with others
  1. We connect through the stories we share.
  2. We picture our pathways of knowledge.
  3. We see, think, act, make and share without words.
  4. We keep and share knowledge with art and objects.
  5. We work with lessons from land and nature.
  6. We put different ideas together and create new knowledge.
  7. We work from wholes to parts, watching and then doing.
  8. We bring new knowledge home to help our mob.
I always begin planning a unit with this in mind: how explicit am I being with the personal and wider narrative? How much do include applications for the students and family connections? How much will this connect with real life purposes and contexts?

In our Circle model we meet students from communities and we hear their stories for the future; we then teach the content so it connects back to their real story; as they leave the program and use their skills & new knowledge for their community life - the Circle closes!

It's worth exploring 8 Ways and discover how you could implement it - it's one of my favourite 'bookmarks'!

7 comments:

  1. Nice this can help many to learn :)


    learning

    ReplyDelete
  2. You forgot one crucial piece in the 8 ways model and that is Indigenous Languages.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Language is absolutely central to culture and identity! But this post was about reflecting on the 8 ways, identified and written by Aboriginal people and they did not include language outside of 'non-verbal' - which is interesting and raises an interesting discussion in itself!
    I most certainly do reflect on language as part of trying to do relevant and appropriate contextualisation as some words I might use simply don't exist in other languages, some words carry different meanings and I need to be able to help aboriginal students think about our lesson in their own language.
    Thanks for your comment Unknown, I'd love to hear more of your perspective or experience of this!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community. Your website provided us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole community will be grateful to you. For more info: human resource assignment help

    ReplyDelete
  5. AVI Homeopathy - Basically, it is a chromosomal order characterized by the existence of an extra copy of genetic material on the 21st chromosome; it may be of any type as in format or also due to internal translocations. As such, the impact of the additional changes varied from people to people, depending on the genetic history & earlier symptoms.vist down syndrome treatment in homeopathy. Rarely found syndrome, is due to increased mutagenic exposures upon some older parents' reproductive cells. Apart from this, many other factors may also play a role. Till now, as Medical science believes it occurred in all human populations, and parallel effects have been found in other creatures also. Get more info Visit AVI Homeopathy

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am truly inspired by this online journal! Extremely clear clarification of issues is given and it is open to every living soul. I have perused your post, truly you have given this extraordinary informative data about it.
    นิทาน อังกฤษ

    ReplyDelete
  7. This blog is awesome !! I have got very good information about 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning

    Daycare Auckland

    ReplyDelete