Indigenous Thinkers

The Education of Native Peoples:

Educational Theory and Indigenous Populations

We are following the framework established by Dr. Demmert for his distance learning class Fall '06

Texts:

1. Improving Academic Performance Among Native American Students
2. A Review of The Research Literature on the Influences of Culturally Based Education on the Academic Performance of Native American Students (www.nwrel.org/indianed/cbe.pdf)  
3. Native American Children: The Gap in Achievement and Research, (Demmert, Towner, Grissmer, Chun, & Cresswell) in press

 Principles of Teaching Native American Students

  Demmert 10/13/05

The CREDE Principles for Teaching Native American Students

 There appears to be a general consensus, certainly supported by some of the research, that one of the major influences on improving the education of Native American, and other students as well, is considered to be the quality of teachers (this includes their content knowledge, their ability to apply the theories of appropriate pedagogy, their knowledge about how children learn and the optimal stages for learning; and their ability to work with the communities and the children served by them and the school).[1]

 One of the most exciting set of researched based principles for successful teaching of Native American students is presented by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence (CREDE).[2]  These principles include the following:

1.      Joint Productive Activity: Teacher and Students Producing Together;

2.      Language & Literacy Development: Developing Language and Literacy Across the curriculum

3.      Contextualization:  Making Meaning – Connecting School to Students’ Lives;

4.      Challenging Activities:  Teaching Complex Thinking;

5.      Instructional Conversation:  Teaching Through Conversation;

6.      Modeling :  Learning Through Observation; and

7.      Student Directed Activity:  Encourage Student Decision Making.

For a more detailed review of the seven principles, and the activities that surround them note the handout.