Measuring Changes in Instructional Practices to Better Serve English Learners

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Evaluating Teacher Professional Development Experiences

Abstract

Most classroom teachers are not prepared to reach the unique instructional needs of English learners (ELs) (Darling-Hammond, 2008; Kareva and Echevarría, 2013). A quasi-experiment research design is used to study how a comprehensive professional development program influences teachers’ instructional practice for ELs. The data source used to determine change in practice is the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP). Pre- and post- classroom observations were collected for 23 in-service teachers and 5 control group teachers using the SIOP. Findings reveal a significant positive change in classroom practices related to 7 of the 8 subscales on the SIOP. This research contributes to the literature and sheds insight on professional development that systematically prepares teachers to meet the needs of linguistically diverse learners.

Authors

• Susan V. Piazza, Western Michigan University

• Virginia David, Western Michigan University

• Cody T. Williams, Western Michigan University

• Maria Selena Protacio, Western Michigan University