Dr Tyson Yunkaporta from the Regional Aboriginal Education Team for Western NSW for the Department of Education and Training has been instrumental in designing a way to look at teaching that incorporates Aboriginal ways of learning into all subjects found in a contemporary classroom.

Eight Ways of Learning focuses on culture and uses learning tools like yarning to give context to subjects like Maths, English and Science.

"If you're doing algebra, you're doing algebra, you're not going to go and make a Dilly Bag in the corner," says Dr Yunkaporta, "But that process of making that Dilly Bag...that's what you can map onto in learning those algorithms."

The program has been designed with the help of elders from many different language groups and has been adopted by several schools and individual teachers in the western region.

Dr Yunkaporta says the framework allows teachers to adapt learning to that particular classroom rather than following a linear pattern of teaching and learning.

"People are surprised because they think bringing in Aboriginal culture will actually decrease the intellectual focus but people are analysing and synthesising at higher levels than they did before," says Dr Yunkaporta,"You actually see teachers engaging with deep knowledge and higher level thinking."