Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T04:16:51.293Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Helping Aboriginal Students to Understand Mathematics and Science Concepts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2015

R.M. Hastie  and
D.F. Treagust
R.M. Hastie
Affiliation:
Goldfields Regional Education Office, Kalgoorlie, W.A. 6430
D.F. Treagust
Affiliation:
Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Western Australian Inst. of Technology, Bentley, WA, 6102
Get access

Extract

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!

Type
Research Article
Information
The Australian Journal of Indigenous Education , Volume 13 , Issue 4 , September 1985 , pp. 8 - 15
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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.Google Scholar
Ashton, P., 1975: Cross cultural Piaget research: An experimental perspective. Harvard Educational Review, 45, 475–506.Google Scholar
Berndt, R.M. and Berndt, C.H. (Ed.), 1975: Aborigines of the West: Their past and their present. Perth: University of Western Australia Press.Google Scholar
Berry, J.W., 1978: Human Ecology and Cognitive Style. New York: John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
Bruner, J., Oliver, R. and Greenfield, P.M., 1967: Studies in Cognitive Growth. London: Wiley.Google Scholar
Dasen, P.R., 1972: Cross cultural Piagetian research: A summary. Journal of Cross Cultural Psychology, 3 (1), 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Lemos, M.M., 1969: The development of conservation in Aboriginal children. International Journal of Psychology, 4, 255–269.Google Scholar
Education Department of Western Australia, Curriculum Branch, 1978: Mathematics Syllabus with Notes - Pre-Primary to Year Seven, Perth: Government Printer.Google Scholar
Goodnow, J., 1962: A test of milieu effects with some of Piaget’s tasks. Psychological Monographs, 76, (36 whole No. 55).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Graham, G., 1982: Distance or difference in Aboriginal education. The Aboriginal Child at School, 10 (4).Google Scholar
Harris, J.W., 1979: Ethnoscience and its relevance for education in traditional Aboriginal communities. Unpublished Masters thesis, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland.Google Scholar
Harris, P., 1981: Measurement in tribal Aboriginal communities. The Aboriginal Child at School, 1 (2).Google Scholar
Harris, S., 1977: Milingimbi Aboriginal learning contexts. Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of New Mexico.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
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.Google Scholar
Piaget, J., and Inhelder, B., 1974: The Child’s Construction of Quantities. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Ramsay, G.A., and Dale, L.G., 1971: The Australian Science Education Project: Its rationale. The Australian Science Teachers Journal 17 (3), 51–57.Google Scholar
Seagrim, G., and Lendon, R., 1980: Furnishing the Mind: A Comparative Study of Cognitive Development in Central Australian Aborigines. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar