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The Indigenous Story Continues
This first Northern Territory kit of fifty tasks for Aboriginal Students was later used in 1996 as the basis of a similar exploration with urban Indigenous students around Brisbane. Some modifications and additions were made based on knowledge about tasks which had grown over the intervening years. However, overall, the original set was found to be equally applicable to Indigenous students in this environment. The current set of 50 tasks is, therefore, the composite work of both groups of teachers.
Since 1996 this kit has been widely used across Australia and has also been used to support the learning of Native American students in the United States.
The idea of bordering the cards with student drawings to add an Indigenous 'stamp' to the resource came from the first project. It was enthusiastically repeated by the Queensland teachers who went a step further by hiring an Aboriginal artist to help the students develop their drawings.
The logo of the Task Centre Project comes from the work of two Indigenous students in the Queensland project who journeyed where no-one had gone before in the solution of the Sphinx task.
For four years from August 1998, the Aboriginal Education Unit, Tasmania, developed an on-going professional development program based around the Task Centre Kit for Indigenous Students. The stunning improvements in mathematics and literacy which developed for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students alike testify to the power of long-term PD programs with the same group of teachers.
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Story of the Logo
The Task Centre Project is indebted to the Mathematical Association of Victoria for making this information available on their Task Centre Site.
Kit Contents
Full details of the tasks in the kit and their connections to Maths300.
Ordering
Use this PDF flier or your own order form.
USA and elsewhere: Please ask.
History of Development
The Task Centre Project is indebted to the Mathematical Association of Victoria for making this information available on their Task Centre Site.
Results from INISSS
A four year professional development project which began by encouraging teachers to use the Task Centre Kit for Aboriginal Students in Year 8 has demonstrated world-first gains in numeracy and literacy within the framework of learning to work like a mathematician.
Other stories of success are also told at this link.
Rachel Boyce
Classroom experiences from Crossways Lutheran School Ceduna, South Australia.
Erin Sells
Classroom experiences from Ernabella Anangu School, South Australia.
Nicholas Dale
Changes in the participant, colleagues and children at Winkie Primary School, Riverland, South Australia as a result of a six day professional development program. Nic comments: Many of my children are Aboriginal and, before introducing this initiative, were on the border of non-productive mathematical learning.
Ruth Lansdell
After a long teaching career, Ruth is sharing her experience as a tutor in the Indigenous Tutorial Assistance Scheme (ITAS) in Tasmania. The reports below indicate that even though her students may be '...the most disadvantaged kids I have worked with', Ruth has been able to share her love of numbers and excite them to begin '...thinking mathematically'. Their reports illustrate a tight link between being thrilled by mathematics and wanting to use your literacy and technology skills to explain it to someone else.
Email: 11 December 2006
Dear Doug,
The kids at Moonah wanted to send you some more of their work. We talked about what to send and then they told me what to write. I hope you enjoy these and perhaps find them useful.
Best wishes,
Ruth
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