Teacher Professional Learning in the Language-Rich Inquiry Science With English Language Learners Through Biotechnology (LISELL-B) Project: Supporting English Learners in the Goals of Next Generation Science Standards

• In Event: 52.030 - Using Next Generation Science Standards to Inform and Provide Equitable Instruction, Learning, and Assessments to Diverse Students

Abstract

Objectives / Purpose
In the Southeastern U.S., teachers have historically had little experience working with English learners. Over the past few decades, however, the new Latino diaspora (Wortham, Murillo, & Hamann, 2002) has resulted in many teachers in this region facing classes with half or more first- and second-generation immigrant students, many of whom speak a home language other than English. Given these rapid demographic shifts, it is not surprising that recent educational policies in the Southeast, which largely promote English-only instruction, have failed to make use of students’ cultural and linguistic resources as instructional supports (Garcia & Kleifgen, 2010). It is within this context that we developed the Language-rich Inquiry Science with English Learners through Biotechnology (LISELL-B) project and the resulting teacher professional learning framework. We describe the components of the LISELL-B professional learning framework, and the central role it played in our development of a research-practice design partnership with participating school districts.

Perspectives / Theoretical framework
The Next Generation Science Standards raise the bar for all students, both in terms of conceptual and linguistic skills. Nowhere is this truer than in the focus on science and engineering practices. While the goal that all students engage in the NGSS practices is laudable, mastery of these practices requires the acquisition of many new linguistic skills that may be taken for granted or overlooked by teachers, as well as by professional development facilitators. In the LISELL-B project we draw upon a range theoretical perspectives that inform the intersection between science learning and language learning. Most centrally we have used ideas from systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 2004), notions of translanguaging (Garcia & Wei, 2014), and broader sociolinguistic theories (Linquanti & Hakuta, 2012) to inform our language-rich scientific investigation practices. These practices scaffold the language necessary for all students to effectively participate in and communicate about the NGSS practices.

Methods & Data sources
We developed and utilized multiple research instruments to study the development of the LISELL-B model. These include student constructed response assessments, teacher observation protocols, parent-student interviews, teacher focus groups, and teacher professional development notebooks. We used a range of analytic methods to interpret these data sources, including systemic functional linguistic analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and various open coding methodologies.

Results
We highlight examples of how we integrated Spanish language into science and language practices with monolingual teachers, the role of bilingualism in our family science workshops, and aspects of our summer institute and summer academy that provide examples of innovative practices to link an equity orientation with NGSS-linked practices.
Scholarly significance
One goal of the LISELL-B project was to support teachers in building upon their ELs’ emergent conceptual and linguistic understandings of the NGSS practices by supporting the language of science needed to engage in and communicate about those practices. Our poster will point to the value of supporting teachers in attending more closely to their students’ linguistic resources in order to encourage more equity-focused implementation of the NGSS.

Author

• Cory A. Buxton, University of Georgia - Athens