The Effects of Teacher Style on Year One Aboriginal Children’s Reading Achievement
Abstract
Since the mid-1950’s, educational literature has reflected a deep concern for the relatively poor academic performance of children from particular ethnic minority groups. In the United States, for example, attention has focused on the low achievements of many Negro, Spanish and Indian children, and in Australia there is an increasing concern with the educational achievements of numbers of Aborigines. The data collected to date suggest that a child’s ethnic group membership makes an important contribution to his success in school. More specifically, the data raise the very broad issue of educability of children from some socio-economic and sub-cultural groups.
In most instances educability has been closely linked with teacher performance, suggesting that teachers play an important role in determining their pupil’s behaviours and achievements. It is this possible link between teacher behaviour and student achievement which has provided the impetus for much of the educational research focusing on the influence of the teacher. This area of research, however, is not characterized by a large number of conclusive studies. Nevertheless, some encouraging trends can be noted to indicate a possible relationship between the teacher variable and student achievements and behaviours.
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