Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 18, Number 4, 1 April 2001 — Hālau Aʻo gives Hawaiian students on Maui an edge with culture-based teaching and learning [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Hālau Aʻo gives Hawaiian students on Maui an edge with culture-based teaching and learning

By Lui Hokoana Editor's Note: Lui K. Hokoana is a Hawaiian Leadership Development Program graduate and has been the director of the Po'okela Program at Maui Community College for 10 years. He is part of the Halau A 'o management team and the director of MCC's Ku'ina, a program to address employment and educational barriers for youth between the ages of 14-21. In 1998, Maui Community College was awarded a Native Hawaiian curriculum grant through the Native Hawaiian Education Act. Halau A'o was then established to address at risk Native Hawaiian youth and provide them access to post-high education or training. The project has several components including Curriculum, Technology Literacy, Parent Education and College Course work. The curriculum makes this program Hawaiian and different from other at risk programs. Key eomponents are based on traditional Hawaiian learning including a holistic approach to learning, the inclusion of collaborative learning, learning that includes all the senses,

applieahle real life learning, and the integration of hō'ike to present what they have learned. The curriculum model was designed by Rose Yamada, retired DOE administrator.

The model is called Challenge Based Learning and are premised on these strategies of self-dis-covery: the power of wondering; the responsibility for learning; cultural caring; success and failure; eollaboration and competition; diversity and inclusivity; solitude and reflection; the natural world; and

outcome mapping. These activities provide students with the opportunity to understand the focus or challenge/project by attempting to find relationships with their own experience or prior knowledge. The academic or problematic tasks are explained to the students, as they are encouraged to ask questions, share ideas, and

develop definitions to clarify eoncepts. Group roles, tasks, and cooperative efforts enable the students to gather more information, deliberate, and synthesize new knowledge.

-i In some cases they may need to practice a related skill or solve a related problem before getI ting to the final | phases of the learnI ing tasks. Individual I accountability beI comes important, I as students heeome I actively involved in | learning by doing. 1 The key results of | the tasks rest in the application of what the students learned, the information they

gathered, the conclusions they eame to, or the solutions they created/invented. These applieations are to be "captured" in the form of static displays, exhibits, demonstrations, reports, and technological or other presentations. Quality performances and products are sought. Assessment for the student is

based on rubrics, self-evaluation, reflections, traditional (paper/peneil), external evaluation, and mo'olelo portfolio. Covered here is a snapshot of the curriculum model that has been implemented at Halau A'o. The qualitative data has been overwhelmingly favorable. The program has significantly lowered drop out rates, increased matriculation, and enrollment at post high institutions. ■

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Ho'ona'ahao

!io on.

No nā kumu ... He kahe kohu kahawai ke a'o aku, ke a'o mai; he ho'opau 'ole na'e, he ho'omaha iki ho'i, he ho'omaka mau nō. "Like a river do teaching and learning flow; never ending, sometimes resting, always beginning." : i ' L Heanu Weller, kumu Kula Kaiapuni 'o Keaukaha X \ '

Hōlau A'o has lowered drop-out rates, and increased college enrollment. Photo courtesy: Lui Hokoana