Science is one area within Aboriginal Education which appears to receive comparatively little attention.

The author experienced this in practice when he was lecturing in science education to trainee teachers on the topic of teaching science to Aboriginal students in secondary schools. As a newcomer to the Northern Territory the author does not have direct personal experience in this area and so he decided to search the literature. No previous bibliography of this topic was found. Initially searching revealed very little, but slowly the collection of interesting articles has increased, and whilst it is realised that the selection included in this bibliography is far from complete, it is offered to the reader as a starting point.

Most secondary teachers in Queensland will encounter Aboriginal and Islander students in the classroom at some time or other, and most teachers will have no experience or training to prepare them to meet the special needs of the indigenous students. Aboriginal and Islander students are, indeed, different from mainstream (or Anglo-Celtic) Australian students in their learning characteristics, their social or cultural backgrounds, existing educational disadvantagement and experience of prejudice, and their use of forms of English other than Standard Australian English (SAE). To say that all students are equal and should be treated the same way is to deny these important differences and impede the learning of Aboriginal and Islander students in the mainstream classroom.

Two features of Aboriginal and Islander learning styles about which classroom teachers need to be aware are field sensitivity and external locus of control. Students described as “field sensitive” (or field dependent) are influenced by context and develop cognitive styles related to a global, or whole, approach to thinking. The introduction to learning new material, therefore, needs to take this learning style into account, if Aboriginal and Islander students are to cope with learning in a culture which is not their own. The introduction needs to be global in its approach, to enable these students to apply it to their existing knowledge. (Tutor leaflet, n.d.) Field dependent behaviours exhibited by indigenous students, according to a leaflet issued to tutors working with Aboriginal and Islander students in Townsville, include a preference for group type, co-operative learning tasks and a sensitivity to the feelings and opinions of peers, rather than an individual, competitive learning style. There is also a tendency to relate to the teacher/tutor at a highly personal level.

“The Minister directs that you take up duties at X school.” Ye gods and little fishes! What does a teacher new to a school like this do?

The school concerned in this paper is in a small, isolated, North Queensland town with a population of about 200. The racial mix is about 75% Aboriginal descent. The “best” jobs are mainly confined to the European sector, with the high profile occupations being held by itinerants, (teachers, nurses, and police). The local council is the main employer in the town, but there is still a high level of unemployment. Low socio-economic and educational standards and high alcohol consumption are prevalent throughout the community.

In early 1989 a proposal was submitted for the purchase of three Macintosh computers and software for the purpose of assisting lower streamed students in their reading difficulties. A condition of the purchase was that some form of evaluation would be implemented in order to gauge the worth of the program.

The computers were installed in the schools and a program of instruction was written for the commencement of Term IV, which ran for 10 weeks.

A considerable amount of research attests to the difficulties experienced by Aboriginal students in the school system of New South Wales. Coker (1981) states that Aboriginal students more than any other identificable group in Australia score consistently lower in basic skills tests involving reading, writing and mathematics. McConnochie (1973) suggests that the failure of Aboriginal students at school is primarily the fault of the school system and not the student. Institutions tend to debase the student’s self-concept and the group with whom they identify. This process contributed to the students’ low self-esteem and further contributed to low vocational aspirations and academic achievement.

I think those of us who are interested in what is written in Aboriginal languages need to be much more open than we have been in the past to shifts of emphasis in the development of written Aboriginal literatures. Looking at the way the Northern Territory bilingual program developed is one way in to thinking about this issue.