Teachers' Use of Spanish and Inquiry-Based Instruction in Bilingual Science Classrooms

• In Event: 18.058 - MTCC Roundtable Session Four
  In Roundtable Session: 18.058-12 - A Look at Science and Math With Bilingual Learners

Abstract

This study explores the use of Spanish in a 6th grade bilingual science classrooms in an urban intermediate school in Texas. It is part of a research that examines the implementation of a multi-disciplinary intervention, Dialogic Inquiry for Socio-scientific and Conceptual Understanding in School Science (DISCUSS). We used a case study approach to describes how the treatment and control teachers used Spanish during the implementation of a unit of instruction on space exploration. Findings show that the DISCUSS protocol helped the treatment teacher create opportunities for collaboration and dialogue which are essential elements for language and science integration. However, Spanish is yet to be used as valuable resource for science learning

Authors

• Araceli Enriquez-Andrade, University of Houston

• Ma. Glenda Lopez Wui, University of Houston

• Jie Zhang, University of Houston

• Sissy S. Wong, University of Houston

• Yan Yan, University of Houston

• Jackie Eunjung Relyea, Harvard University

• Jennifer Donze, University of Houston

• Lana Kharabi-Yamato, University of Houston

• Rosa Nam, University of Houston