In a paper by Cooper , T. J& Baturo, A. R et.el (2004) he has reviewed the lit on teacher perception of Aboriginal students. The authors of this paper has highlighted that Green (1982) who conducted a study of 15 Aboriginal teachers from class room where the Aboriginal student population varied from five to sixty percent.
This study reveled out of eighty responses forty eight of the responses answered that the low performance of Aboriginal student were due to lack of interest, language skills, not having proper behavioral skills, lack of nutrition and proper school socializing skills.
In this study eleven of the responses blamed familial difficulties such as low expectations of parents of Aboriginal students, little parental support, transient lifestyle is the cause of Aboriginal problems in schools.
However six responses answered that the gap of cultural differences made Aboriginal students to assimilate in the school system was the cause of problems experienced by Aboriginal students in school. As well in this study four responses believed that the schools can be effective if they received assistance from Government agencies.
Few responded that school is not responsible for the learning difficulties of Aboriginal students. This study shows that the teachers perception are not the same and it differs from one teacher to the next and there is considerable evidence that Aboriginal learning of Mathematics can be addressed if teacher can have a positive attitude of Aboriginal students if they can have appropriate teaching methods and cultural sensitivity in terms of uncovering how Aboriginal students learn or discovering how Aboriginal students learning styles.
For example in this paper the authors have highlighted that in a case study by Malin (1998) attributed a teacher Mrs Banks who had an outstanding record of success because she had innate knowledge of students and she had a positive attitude that students will learn if they are supported. This showed a link between teachers perceptions and Aboriginal learning in schools.
In addition Cooper , T. J & Baturo, A. R et.el (2004) they have reported a date collection of 12 teachers at three school in remote North West Queensland to evaluate the effectiveness of mathematics professional development program. In this they interviewed white young inexperienced teachers who have graduated within the last three years of this study.
The interview covered the areas of teachers perception of mathematics teaching and learning, what mathematics curriculum must be taught and what teachers have to do to improve mathematics class room teaching. The interview was conducted in the beginning of the academic year and end of the academic year. The second interview was regarding the learning styles of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.
The result of this interview showed a deficit model which attributed learning difficulties to students or their families in terms of readiness to learn because of the lack of interest by students and no support from the family of these students learning at school particularly to explain the differences in learning of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students.
However there are some teachers who pointed that the learning styles of Aboriginal students differ to that of other non-Aboriginal students in that Aboriginal students preference to a structured learning environment compared to other students and they like support and disliked risk taking in learning and they liked practical activities than writing work in their learning and if provided they learned well compared to other students.
This shows that if the teachers have positive attitudes towards Aboriginal students and set high achievement for them and provided appropriate culturally sensitive teaching methods of mathematics to Aboriginal students their learning outcomes f the curriculum allows them to do an innovate teaching practice in the class room.
Handal, B. P. in his self-concept research paper has reviewed teachers Mathematical beliefs of teaching students from various socio-economic back ground. In his paper he has highlighted that Shults, Nehart and Mac Reck (1996) surveyed 229 secondary teachers and they have found that urban students have the same ability as other students, However some teachers believe other factors such as the personal attributes, the environment and school and teacher may limit learning ability of students from various socio-economic back ground.
As well the teachers believe students from these back grounds may be less motivated and may have lower ability due to economic factors. In addition this author of this self-concept research has highlighted that Anyon (1980 cited by Boaler,1997) has found that there exist a difference in teaching styles if the students are from working class or from middle-class and the more choice, analytical reasoning and discussions of different methods and emphasis placed on mathematical process in middle-class class rooms compared to rote methods and rule based in the working class student class rooms.
This paper by Handal, B. P. also has highlighted the above findings are also substantiated by Haberman's (1994) of the alleged pedagogy of poverty where mathematical teaching is based on rote methods and rule based and based on authoritarian teaching styles. As Aboriginal are from lower socio-economic back ground many teachers will have belief in rote teaching to these students rather than adopting a progressive style which may be counter productive if the students learning styles are completely different than the teacher belief of how students learn from these socio-economic back grounds.
In a report by Northern Region of the Department of Education, Queensland which relates to the second round of successfully teaching Mathematically workshops in the fourth term of 1996 as a result of request from National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Program has found that cultural back ground, language factors, attitudes of aboriginal students, Aboriginal perspectives of Mathematics are the major barriers to student learning.
As well it identifies that Aboriginal students learn completely differently compared to non-Aboriginal students particularly students come from the Western cultural back ground.
It highlights Aboriginal students learn in a cooperative manner as opposed to individual learning as well they insist on practical work in a contextual manner rather than class work, through imitation and trail and error methods of learning Mathematics. This report also states that if Mathematics teaching which overemphasizes use of algorithmic exercises and abstract concepts which will be seen as meaningless by Aboriginal students and often be seen as irrelevant in their lives.
As well this report also highlight the factors that influence the attitudes and behavior the Aboriginal student develop. These factors are their home life, how successful they are at school, how much they understand what is being taught, their cultural background and most importantly the relationship they develop with the teacher.
As discussed above the teacher perception of Aboriginal students may come in to conflict with the students attitudes and learning styles and may contribute even further behavioral and learning difficulties if the teaching is not culturally sensitive and taught in a contextual manner particularly to aboriginal students.
