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Learning Styles

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Bergstrom, A., Cleary, L, & Peacock, T. (2003). The Seventh Generation: Native Students Speak about Finding the Good Path. Charleston, WV: Edvantia.

This book is based on interviews with 120 Native youth from across North America. Written especially for today's Native middle and high school students, the authors share students' stories of life's challenges and their struggles to find and stay on the Good Path. They focus especially on how students developed strong Native identities; coped with troubles in their families, communities, and schools; reached their breaking points or responded resiliently to high-pressure situations; learned to appreciate their own intellectual gifts and abilities; and met the academic and social challenges they encountered in school. Interspersed throughout the book are short fictional "teaching stories" meant to illustrate common dilemmas faced by Native youth and how the characters responded.

General Accounting Office (2001). BIA and DOD School Student Achievement and Other Characteristics Often Differ from Public Schools'. PDF (1.5 MB) Retrieved May 5, 2005 from http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01934.pdf

The federal government has direct responsibility for two school systems serving elementary and secondary students – the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of Defense school systems. This report provides information on student academic performance, teacher staffing, access to educational technology, the condition of facilities, and expenditure levels for each system. This study also provides comparative data for public schools when these data are available.

Klug, B. J. & Whitfield, P. T. (2003). Widening the Circle: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy for American Indian Children. New York, NY., RoutledgeFalmer.

Intended for preservice and in-service teachers, this text promotes successful teaching of American Indian children through cultural appreciation of indigenous cultures and through the teacher's becoming culturally competent. Exercises are included at the end of each chapter to assist the reader in exploring their own culture and values. In Chapter One, Klug and Whitfield state the goals of the book: to describe the process of becoming bicultural; to provide a short history of American Indians that includes educational practices since European contact; to enlarge the readers' sense of culture; and to provide examples of culturally responsive pedagogy, curricula, and instructional tools. Chapter Two provides a brief history of American Indian education. Chapter Three discusses the colonization of American Indian communities generally. Chapter Four addresses the development of the concept of culture. In Chapters Five and Six, the authors explore culturally responsive educational practices and pedagogies. Additional chapters introduce four teachers who have taught in schools with large populations of American Indian students, and discuss how to bring indigenous communities into the school community.

Nee-Benham, M., & Cooper, J. (Eds.), (2000). Indigenous Educational Models for Contemporary Practice: In Our Mother's Voice. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

What is the philosophy that should drive native education policy and practice? In July 1997 a group of native educational leaders from the United States (including Alaska and Hawai'i), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand gathered to define a potential solution to this question. This book passes on the individual educational philosophies of the participants and forwards a collective vision for a native language- and culture-based educational philosophy that native educational leaders and teachers, policymakers, and curriculum developers can use to ground their work.

Pewewardy, C. (2002). Learning Styles of American Indian/Alaska Native Students: A Review of the Literature and Implications for Practice. PDF (202 KB) Journal of American Indian Education 41(3), 22-56.

A review of theories, research, and models of the learning styles of American Indian/Alaska Native students reveals that American Indian/Alaska Native students generally learn in ways characterized by factors of social/affective emphasis, harmony, holistic perspectives, expressive creativity, and nonverbal communication. Underlying those approaches are assumptions that American Indian/Alaska Native students have been strongly influenced by the language, culture, and heritage, and that American Indian/Alaska Native children's learning styles are different – but not deficient. Implications for interventions include recommendations for instructional practice, curriculum organization, assessment, and suggestions for future research.

St. Charles, J., & Costantino, M. (2000, June). Reading and the Native American Learner: Research Report. PDF (790 KB) Olympia, WA: Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, Office of Indian Education.

This document is intended as a resource for mainstream teachers. It provides a summary of current research on effective ways for teachers to more fully meet the educational needs of American Indian children attending public schools.

Strand, J. (2002). Nurturing Resilience and School Success in American Indian and Alaska Native Students. PDF (35 KB) Charleston, WV: Clearinghouse on Rural and Small Schools. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED471488).

This digest examines recent literature on factors related to resilience, well-being, and school success for American Indian and Alaska Native students. The characteristics of resilient Native youth are discussed, including the ability to bounce back from adversity, and protective factors that enable high-risk resilient children to avoid negative outcomes. Traditional Native ways of fostering resilience focused on developmental areas related to spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being. The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health revealed connections within family, community, and school that foster resilience. Although there are tribal differences in traditional Native ways, this digest focuses on some commonalities that exist in shared core values, beliefs, and behaviors. The findings of one recent study are highlighted, revealing what Native youth believe parents, teachers, and schools can do to foster resilience. Additional studies that make connections between resilience and Native spirituality and biculturalism are briefly reviewed.

Disclaimer and Terms of Use

Disclaimer: The papers on this web page are provided for your convenience. We believe these papers provide information that is relevant and useful to efforts to improve teaching and learning for Native American students. The opinions expressed in these papers, however, do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the Office of Indian Education or the U.S. Department of Education. Also, the inclusion of papers here does not represent, nor should it be construed or interpreted as, an endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education of any private organization or business.

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