Transforming Ecuadorian EFL Teacher Practices Through Biography-Driven Instruction

• In Event: 42.062 - Classroom Observations: Reliability, Validity, and Use in Determining Teacher Effectiveness

Abstract

Through a partnership with Ecuador, a Midwestern U.S. university has led efforts to provide pedagogical professional development to more than 1,000 EFL teachers. Program participants explore what it means to teach students from a biography-driven instruction perspective. Such a perspective guides educators to uncover students’ sociocultural, linguistic, cognitive, and academic assets and utilize them to advance teaching and learning. This study highlights the findings from one team’s observations of 84 Ecuadorian program completers using the Inventory of Situationally and Culturally Responsive Teaching to measure teachers’ effectiveness in the delivery of differentiated instructional practices for Ecuadorian EFL students.

Authors

• Kevin G. Murry, Kansas State University

• Melissa Ann Holmes, Kansas State University

• Socorro Herrera, Kansas State University