Learning Patterns and Education

In my journey as a cyber-traveller, I have been searching for research on learning style preferences (if any) for Indigenous students.  I have heard, or perhaps read, that many BC Indigenous students prefer group work, collaboration and to be allowed time to reflect before responding rather than rapid fire questions.  I wanted to know if there was any research to back this up, and if so, what approaches or strategies could I use in my classroom to make the Indigenous students feel more comfortable and willing to share.  The search for answers to those questions lead me to this article.

Learning Patterns and Education of Aboriginal Children: A Review of the Literature is an article written by Carmen Rasmussen, Lola Baydala and Jody Sherman.  The visual qualities of the article and the fairly old reference list left me surprised that the publish date was 2004.  However, looking past the poor quality of the pdf, the contents of the article were intriguing.  The authors discuss trends in learning styles for Indigenous people, tying in cultural practices and how they might affect learning styles.  They offer a number of suggestions for classroom practice.  The article is respectful and repeatedly states that we need to be aware of and respectful of Indigenous cultures if we want to do our best for Indigenous students.