Hunter Sports High 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning Presentation

HUNTER SPORTS HIGH 8 ABORIGINAL WAYS OF LEARNING PRESENTATIONs

Aboriginal Pedagogies at the Cultural Interface developed from research done by Tyson Yunkaporta

Standpoint
Musical presentation of standpoint methodology (5 min)
Staff to complete Standpoint Methodology Quiz (20min)
Staff create own message stick (15 minutes to do, 10 to share)

Processes
Jig Saw exercise and test based on understanding of 8 Aboriginal Pedagogies (50 min)
8 Ways and Quality Teaching (15 min)
8 Ways and Behaviour Management (5 min)

Cultural Interface
Teaching through culture not about culture: Aboriginal perspectives come from Aboriginal processes, rather than isolated artefacts of “culture”.

Practice
Two Staff trained in 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning discuss best practice in their subjects
Staff will “tweak” a unit of work; provide evidence of use in classroom practice.

PLEASE NOTE: At the time of posting we had only worked through the Standpoint and Processes components of this program. Hunter Sports High’s “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” presentation is part of the school’s journey that commenced when we received Schools in Partnership funding in 2010, which is when we first heard of this pedagogy. We have been following the Engoori process which we learnt through Stronger Smarter training in 2011. The school continues to increase the number of Staff trained in Stronger Smarter and we only recently received “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” training.

Prior to our 8 Ways of Learning presentation, as part of the Engoori process, we completed surveys that questioned “Who are we? & How do we do things?” In the following presentation we provided feedback on this and explored “What patterns, behaviours & practices do we need to change?” We designed our “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” presentation using:

the structure in Yunkaporta’s thesis (Standpoint, Processes, Cultural Interface, Practice);
the exercises and some of the presentation of the 8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning workshop that five of our Staff members attended at Kurri Kurri TAFE in 2013;
information published on the wiki and
the “8 Aboriginal Ways of Learning” process e.g. providing a background story, then providing models, questioning the meaning of them, explaining codes within the example, allowing Staff to create own examples whilst “trained” Staff supported and, finally, having Staff share their stories.