Investigating the Efficacy and Sustainability of Instructional Coaching on Teacher Pedagogy

poster abstractIdentifying value-added models and measures of instructional coaching are increasingly important with renewed focus on improving teacher quality. This longitudinal and quasiexperimental study investigates the efficacy and sustainability of instructional coaching outcomes with urban elementary teachers (N = 36). The instructional coaching intervention targets use of five research-based practices—the Standards for Effective Pedagogy—known to benefit culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse learners. Quantitative preintervention, post-intervention, and one-year-after intervention data were collected across two years. The intervention consisted of a 30-hour workshop and seven individual coaching sessions across the school year. Findings demonstrate instructional coaching led to statistically significant teacher change against a performance standard. Teachers were able to sustain these changes, albeit at a slightly lower level of fidelity, one year following the intervention. The pattern of attrition reveals that teachers struggle to sustain a commitment to providing teacher assistance to students in the process of learning

Tailoring STEM Instruction for Diverse Learners: What Matters Most?

This presentation focused on defining a three-tiered transformative approach to differentiating instruction for diverse learners, which includes changing the organization of classrooms, improving the quality of learning activities, and creating a culture of recognition that respects all learners. Using supporting evidence from instructional coaching studies, this paper identifies challenges facing STEM teachers at each tier of differentiation. While coached elementary and secondary teachers make significant gains in implementing this approach to differentiation, STEM teachers, in particular, make significantly less growth and less consistent growth. Implications for increasing STEM teachers’ knowledge and skills for differentiating instruction for diverse learners are addressed

Preparing Content Teachers to Work with Multilingual Students

It is well‐documented that content teachers (e.g., math, science, social studies, etc.) have not been adequately prepared to address the increasing number of multilingual students in their classes (Freeman & Freeman, 2014; Lucas, 2011). While many teacher education programs strive to prepare teachers during initial licensure programs (e.g., de Oliveira & Yough, 2015; Freeman & Freeman, 2014; Levine, Howard, & Moss, 2014) and recent work has focused on secondary teacher preparation at both pre‐service and in‐service levels (de Oliveira & Obenchain, 2018; de Oliveira, Obenchain, Kenney, & Oliveira, in press; de Oliveira & Shoffner, 2016; de Oliveira & Wilcox, 2017), the existing conceptual and empirical knowledge‐base for preparing pre‐ and in‐service content teachers is still in its infancy. Faltis and Valdés (2016) argue that what is known—albeit inconclusively—does nevertheless provide helpful guidance upon which we can all build. This chapter seeks to provide a sense of the issues, research, and practices that shape what we know while identifying fruitful directions for deepening the knowledge‐base for preparing K‐12 content teachers for multilingual learners

Living Critical Sociocultural Theory in Classroom Practice

This article describes critical sociocultural pedagogical practices for sheltering instruction for K-12 English Learners, questioning the status quo in ESL teacher preparation which over emphasizes language to the exclusion of the broader sociocultural, sociopolitical, and sociohistorical context in which students are educated

ESL University Students' Testing Preferences

This descriptive study examined university ESL students’ testing preferences in content-area courses. Thirty-eight ESL students participated by completing a survey. They used a semantic differential scale of ten adjective pairs to rate their preferences regarding five test formats: true/false, short answer/completion, multiple choice, restricted response, and extended essay. Statistical analyses revealed statistically significant differences in testing preferences by test format, productive vs. recognition items, gender, and language groups. Furthermore, ESL students indicate that their testing preferences are largely consistent for their first and second languages. Practical implications for content-area faculty and future directions for research are provided

Measuring the Effectiveness of an ESL Coaching Model

Identifying professional development models that result in accelerated academic and linguistic development among English language learners (ELLs) is a pressing educational concern, especially in an era demanding that teacher performance be directly linked to student achievement. Classroom-based coaching has proven effective in helping teachers to expand skills, sustain change over time, and improve student achievement (e.g., Speck & Knipe, 2001). Coaching provides teachers with a “chain of assistance” (Tharp & Gallimore, 1988, p. 83) in their efforts to implement researched-based practices. This article describes the growth targets, process, and outcome data of the ESL (English-as-a-Second Language) Effective Pedagogy (EEP) Coaching Model. This is a new, sociocultural, performance-based coaching model (Teemant, Reveles, & Tyra, in prep) focused on research-based practices known to improve ELLs’ student achievement. 1 The EEP coaching model is grounded in Vygotsky’s (1978) premise that learning is social, and that through dialogue and interaction with more knowledgeable others – coaches and peers – classroom teachers receive assistance in their Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) to gain the knowledge they need to competently promote the academic development of mainstreamed ELLs.U.S. Department of Education's Office of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA), no. ED-04-CO00094/000

K-12 cross-disciplinary collaboration: An ESL in-service model

ESL students are taught by content and language teachers who share a school building, but may not share their frustrations, concerns, or expertise for working with ESL students across academic disciplines. Often, teaching schedules, the physical layout of a school, or the socio-political milieu make cooperation among faculty difficult. Although many school districts provide content-area teachers with formal ESL in-service development, ESL practitioners often remain the lone expert on ESL issues within individual schools. ESL students, however, need academic support from all their teachers. Given the circumstances, ESL practitioners are in a position to initiate cross-disciplinary collaboration, and to create both formal and informal in-service opportunities within their schools. At the National Center for Science Teaching and Learning, language educators had the opportunity to cross academic boundaries to listen to science teachers in Florida (N=9) and Ohio (N=4) discuss teaching second language learners. Analyses of the focus group (i.e., discussion and written feed) and surveys completed by pre-service science teachers (N=48) provide insight into successfully pursuing cross-disciplinary collaboration. This article describes a model for creating effective ESL in-service opportunities in K-12 settings

Beliefs and Attitudes: How the Presence of English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms Affects Classroom Practices

poster abstractAs the population of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Indiana schools increases, mainstream teachers have the responsibility of effectively teaching them. However, research indicates that there are various factors that may hinder a mainstream teacher’s ability to do this. One of the factors that stood out to me is the teacher’s beliefs and attitudes towards ELLs. This research project will focus on mainstream teachers in Indiana schools and how their beliefs and attitudes towards ELLs affect classroom practices. Further, it will investigate whether teacher preparation has an impact on mainstream teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards their ELLs. The overall goal of this research project is to provide insight into the practices mainstream teachers in Indiana are using in the classroom to assist ELLs. Data will be collected through qualitative methods. Teacher interviews and classroom observations will be conducted. The teacher interviews will help to understand how teachers work with ELLs in the classroom, what feelings they have about ELLs, and how they modify their lessons to fit the needs of ELLs. The classroom observations will help to support the data collected by the interviews. Classroom observations will look for what visible modifications teachers are making to assist ELLs and what attitudes they portray about ELLs. This is a starting research project and there are no definite results or conclusions at the moment