The Education of American Indian Students

I have been working with Navajo teachers and administrators for the past couple of years. It is interesting, and heartbreaking, work. So, I decided to do some research on what the educational needs are of American Indian students.

Not all American Indian students’ needs are the same, of course, but there are some similarities:

• American Indian (AI) students are global learners and need to see the whole task first before having it broken down into steps
• AI students are reflective learners and need time to respond more slowly
• AI students value cooperative behavior and excel in cooperative environments
• They do not respond to competitive structures
• They value and develop acute visual discrimination skills i the use of imagery
• AI learners communicate in parable, allegory, and through tales of examples and allow the listener to come to the correct conclusion
• They prefer small group work to large group work
• Increasing intrinsic motivation is of particular importance for AI students. They tend to prefer to learn information that is personally relevant and interesting to them. Successful teachers connect content to students’ lives and engage in active learning (for the Navajo, the hogan, the sheep, and the rodeo).
• Teachers may be able to increase participation by AI students by wording more speech in the form of comments rather than questions, as well as by encouraging student-to-student verbal interactions.
• AI students respond best to constructivist-based instruction rather than textbooks and workbooks
• AI students need to have curriculum that Includes their culture in their learning