How aboriginal children perceive maths

This article emphasises the importance of basing teaching and learning from where teaching children are, rather than where arbitrary judgements from"experts" say they should be.  The implications of this article go far beyond the right of aboriginal children to be taught the way they learn. It also touches on the way we teach Maori students in New Zealand to reflect the importance of oral culture and family and also, of particular interest to me, how we teach our dyslexic children. 

 

So, for me at least, the fascination of this article is the way it reinforces the myriad "preferred ways of learning" that our children posses together with the reminder of my responsibility to find ways to empower and personalisein my teaching.  This fits in well with the notion of Dyslexia as the "desirable difference" which, when exploited, leads to ability apropriate classroom achievement despite weaknesses in some aspects of basic skills.

 

The article is here