Teachers’ Perceptions of Professional Development Designed to Foster Math-Academic Language and Literacy for English Learners

• In Event: New Approaches to Academic Literacies for Adolescent English Language Learners

Abstract

This paper uses an interdisciplinary framework to document the extent to which teachers changed their perspectives of mathematics classroom practices over 2 years of professional development. The professional development was intended to help participating teachers provide explicit instruction in mathematics academic language and literacy (M-ALL) via English learners’ (ELs) engagement in reform-oriented mathematical content teaching (NCTM, 2000). The research has implications for the design of interdisciplinary professional development curricula as well as for the instruction of ELs.

Our theoretical framework is based on Walqui’s (2011) model of teacher professional development. The model situates Shulman and Shulman’s work within a sociolinguistic frame of language use. Our teachers joined a learning community that respected the purpose and goals of each discipline throughout the professional development by highlighting best practices in math for ELs, and applications of language theory to math teaching and learning (Schleppegrell, 2007). We began with readings/discussion, progressed to coaching/modeling of lessons in real time, and finally to lesson study as the professional development evolved based on teachers’ needs.

We analyzed three sets of teacher interviews and annual professional development evaluation surveys using grounded theory to identify teachers’ perspectives. Videos of classroom teaching were similarly analyzed to explore how teachers enacted the professional development in their classrooms. Correlational and scatter plot analyses were used to investigate the relationship between (changing) teacher perspectives and their practices. From these results, we infer the extent to which the professional development might have impacted classroom teaching. Responses from our final interviews point to continuing teacher needs and to changes in future professional development efforts.

Participating teachers found the professional development to be helpful in facilitating a discussion-based approach for solutions of word problems and furthering their understandings of written math explanations. Classroom data and interviews revealed that teachers maintained deficit perspectives of their students, continued to focus on procedural mathematics in their teaching, and did not provide explicit language-of-math teaching within mathematics instruction.

Our work offers some important insights on the development and implementation of interdisciplinary professional development. We purport that the individually-constructed theoretical lenses of literacy and mathematics need to be (re)synthesized and combine ways of understanding teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and practices with regard to ELs within today’s classrooms. Moreover, interdisciplinary professional development curricula need to remain responsive to teachers’ real-time needs and to address understandings (and misunderstandings) about ELs learning of mathematics.

References

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: NCTM.

Schleppegrell, M. J. (2007). The linguistic challenges of mathematics teaching and learning. Reading and Writing Quarterly, 23, 139-159.

Walqui, A. (2011). The growth of teacher expertise for teaching English language learners: A socio-culturally based professional development model. In T. Lucas (Ed.), Teacher preparation for linguistically diverse classrooms (pp. 160-177). New York, NY: Routledge.

Authors

• Mary A. Avalos, University of Miami

• Jennifer Marie Langer-Osuna, Stanford University

• Walter G. Secada, University of Miami

• Margarita Zisselsberger, Loyola University Maryland