Helping Aboriginal Students to Understand Mathematics and Science Concepts
Abstract
Teachers of Aboriginal children in Australia often have the problem of adapting or modifying curriculum materials which have been developed to meet the needs of the average white Australian/European child. For science and mathematics teachers especially, we believe that appropriate adaptation is essential to ensure that Aboriginal children are better able to comprehend the concepts involved. Many of these concepts at the primary school level involve some aspect of conserving quantities. For example, take a simple experiment where a child is asked to find out whether or not aluminium foil sinks in water. Its flotation, of course, is dependent on shape. The child may roll the aluminium foil into a ball, or flatten it out, and place it in the water. What happens can be observed and discussed and reported. But what if the child thinks this aluminium foil has some unexplainable properties? Maybe it not only changes shape but also its weight! Certainly, on the surface this may appear to be a typical case of nonconservation of weight, but perhaps this is a direct consequence of working with unusual materials and is not a true indicator of mental development!
References
Adey P.S., 1982 : Cross-cultural Piaget psychology and science education . Journal of Science and Mathematics in South East Asia, 5 (2), 10–18.
Ashton P., 1975: Cross cultural Piaget research: An experimental perspective. Harvard Educational Review, 45, 475–506 .
Berndt R.M. and Berndt C.H. (Ed.), 1975 : Aborigines of the West: Their past and their present. Perth: University of Western Australia Press .
Berry J.W., 1978 : Human Ecology and Cognitive Style. New York : John Wiley & Sons.
Bruner J., Oliver R. and Greenfield P.M., 1967 : Studies in Cognitive Growth. London : Wiley.
Dasen P.R., 1972 : Cross cultural Piagetian research: A summary. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 3 (1), 23–40.
de Lemos M.M., 1969 : The development of conservation in Aboriginal children . International Journal of Psychology, 4, 255–269.
Education Department of Western Australia, Curriculum Branch, 1978: Mathematics Syllabus with Notes - Pre-Primary to Year Seven, Perth: Government Printer.
Goodnow J., 1962: A test of milieu effects with some of Piaget’s tasks. Psychological Monographs, 76, (36 whole No. 55).
Graham G., 1982: Distance or difference in Aboriginal education. The Aboriginal Child at School, 10 (4).
Harris J.W., 1979 : Ethnoscience and its relevance for education in traditional Aboriginal communities. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland .
Harris P., 1981: Measurement in tribal Aboriginal communities. The Aboriginal Child at School, 1 (2).
Harris S., 1977: Milingimbi Aboriginal learning contexts. Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of New Mexico.
Hastie R., 1984: Development of modified protocols to assess Piagetian conservation behavior of W.A. Goldfields Aboriginal children. Unpublished project. Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Western Australian Institute of Technology, Perth.
Matthews C.M., Phillips D.G. and Good R.G., 1977 : Student-Structured Learning in Science: A Program for the Teacher, (3rd Edn). Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.
Piaget J., and Inhelder B., 1974: The Child’s Construction of Quantities. London : Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Ramsay G.A., and Dale L.G., 1971 : The Australian Science Education Project: Its rationale . The Australian Science Teachers Journal17 ( 3), 51–57.
Seagrim G., and Lendon R., 1980: Furnishing the Mind: A Comparative Study of Cognitive Development in Central Australian Aborigines. New York: Academic Press.
