Advancing Best Practices for English Language Learners: Professional Development and Teacher Enactment of the Five Standards

• In Event: 46.042 - Professional Development for Supporting English Language Learners

Abstract

The research-based Five Standards of Effective Pedagogy (Tharp & Dalton, 2007) specify teaching universals that are effective for the growing population of English Language Learners (ELLs). Our intervention is a five semester graduate level ELL professional development program that empowers teachers to enact the five standards in their classrooms. The objective of the current research is to longitudinally evaluate, using classroom observations, growth in teachers’ enactment of the five standards over the course of the intervention. Results show that K-12 content area teachers (N = 113) in 37 Midwest schools demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their enactment of effective pedagogy for all students, including ELLs. Critical components of the intervention are discussed along with the significance of these findings.

Authors

• Kevin G. Murry, Kansas State University

• Socorro Herrera, Kansas State University

• Stuart S. Miller, Kansas State University

• Cristina Fanning, Kansas State University

• Della Ruth Perez, Kansas State University

• Shabina Kavimandan, Kansas State University

• Melissa Ann Holmes, Kansas State University