231 research outputs found
Characteristics of Successful Boarding Home Parents of Eskimo and Athabascan Indian Students
The State of Alask
Intellectual Strength in Culturally Different Groups: An Eskimo Illustration
The State of Alask
Achievement Profiles of Native Ninth Graders
The secondary schools of many Alaskan communities are enrolling large numbers of
rural Native students through the Boarding Home Program. Village teachers often have not
sent student records that would provide a basis for placing students in appropriate academic
programs. In the absence of past achievement records, secondary school personnel often
rural Native students to lower achievement level classes because has shown
them that these students generally need supplementary instruction.
An analysis of the achievement test profile of ninth grade Native Boarding Home
Program students entering the Fairbanks area schools suggests the dangers of this academic
placement method.1 Rural Native students appear to vary widely in their achievement
levels, and many are capable of more advanced academic work. Academic placement for
rural Native students in the secondary schools should be based on the particular strengths
and weaknesses of individuals rather than on group generalizations. The current general
placement practice is especially likely to retard the academic progress of the group of rural
Native students that the schools should carefully nurture-the academically talented. In
many cases, these students are too shy to aggressively demonstrate their competence, and
the placement error may not be discovered. Moreover, the teacher's mistakenly low
expectations about the student's ability may depress his level of performance.
Achievement testing with culturally different children has many well-known
weaknesses, and these weaknesses have led to justifiable suspicions about their use.
However, it is far more serious not to test and to assume that rural Native students fall into
the lowest category.The State of Alask
Some Instructional Strategies for the Cross-Cultural Classroom
Based on questionnaire data, 64% (114
respondents) return from all teachers in small village schools
operated by the State of Alaska and the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
This paper describes instructional strategies for new teachers
entering the Alaskan cross-cultural community classroom. The paper
also suggests how the instructional methods harmonize with village
students' learning styles in regard to (1) personalism (experiment
with ways to harmonize personal teaching style with students*
learning styles) (2) competitiveness (devise teaching methods to
cope with passive students), (3) joking (use this native method of
correction in a two-sided manner), (4) project-reward work rhythm
(assign concentrated work followed by material rewards and
relaxation), (5) observational learning (use image-based
instruction), (6) village-based anchoring ideas (relate instructional
material to students' village experiences), and (7) parental
involvement (inform parents as to the school's why's and how's). The
appendix shows a copy of the questionnaire sent at the end of the
1969-70 school year. (MJBThe State of Alask
Effective Teachers of Indian and Eskimo High School Students
The focus of this study is upon analyzing effective
and ineffective teachers in terms of their behavior in the classroom,
not in terms of their personalities or attitudes. It is suggested
that 2 fundamental characteristics distinguish effective from
ineffective teachers of American Indian and Eskimo students: (1) a
high level of personal warmth, especially warmth communicated
nonverbally through facial expression, body distance, and touch; and
(2) a high level of active demandingness in the
classroom--demandingness expressed as an aspect of the teacher's
personal concern for the student, rather than a concern for subject
matter. This study also suggests the need for pre-service and
in-service training for teachers to acquire the type of interpersonal
behavior that facilitates learning among the Indian and Eskimo
students. Teachers of Indian and Eskimo students were observed in 2
boarding schools and in 5 integrated urban high schools during the
1970-71 school year. The focus was on teachers of 9th grade Indian
and Eskimo students. The teachers were videotaped to permit a more
intensive analysis and interviewed to discuss problems of village
students and effective teaching methods. The "Supportive Gadflies,"
who exhibited personal warmth and active demandingness, appeared to
be successful with the Indian and Eskimo students as compared to the
other types of teachers (traditionalists, sophisticates, and
sentimentalists). (FFthe state of Alask
Alaska's Urban Boarding Home Program
In Alaska's Boarding Home Program, rural students from small
villages without high schools attend secondary school by living with a
boarding home family. Most rural students in this program are Eskimo
or Athabascan Indian, and the majority are placed with white families
in urban areas. This study attempts to describe the subtle interpersonal
tensions that develop in the boarding home parent-student
relationship. It also attempts to identify the characteristics of
successful and unsuccessful boarding home parents and ways of
matching parents to students in a manner that maximizes mutual
satisfaction.
The focus on the characteristics of boarding home parents who
develop satisfactory relationships with students, rather than a focus on
the characteristics of rural students who successfully adjust to the
urban environment, was chosen because it seemed likely to be most
useful to the program staff. Since the program accepts almost all
applicants and other options are unavailable, little selection of students
can occur. Selection of parents, however, is a major and routine
program activity. It should be underscored, however, that rural
students differ widely in their capacity to adjust to an urban boarding
home, and some students have severe psychological problems that
probably would prevent them from adapting to any urban home.
The method of obtaining information consisted primarily of
interviewing boarding home parents and students. A detailed
description of the methodology may be found in Appendix II.The State of Alask
Instructional Style and the Intellectual Performance of Indian and Eskimo Students
Three 1970-71 studies concerning the styles of
instruction that lead to higher intellectual performance among
village American Indian and Eskimo high school students are presented
in this final report of observations of teachers and students in
several Native boarding schools and/or integrated urban high schools
in Alaska. The first study, an ethnography, describes the problems of
these students and their teachers, and suggests a typology
differentiating effective and ineffective teachers. This ethnography
suggests that the teachers degree of personal warmth versus
professional distance, and degree of active demandingness versus
passive understanding, are fundamental dimensions separating
successful from unsuccessful teachers. The second study, empirically
j a major hypothesis derived from the ethnography, found that
socioemotional climate of the integrated classroom is
significantly related to the verbal participation of the village
students, who are typically silent and withdrawn. The third study
found that teacher warmth, communicated through nonverbal channels,
leads to higher intellectual performance among village Indians and
Eskimo students. Suggestions are made for implementing the secondary
school instruction of Indian and Eskimo students through teacher
selection methods and training programs which take into account the
importance of personal -4armth and active demandingness in
cross-cultural teaching success. A bibliography and copies of the
Teacher and student questionnaires used in the studies are includedThe State of Alask
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