Impact of Instructional Coaching on Dual-Language Bilingual Education and General Education Elementary School Teachers

• In Event: Innovative Dual-Language Education Teacher Professional Development

Abstract

This multi-site case study explores ways sociocultural instructional coaching can help bilingual and general education elementary teachers work within and through perceived institutional barriers to improve their language and literacy instruction for English language learners (ELLs). In contrast to traditional coaching, which is often behavioristic and fidelity-oriented, sociocultural coaching empowers and emboldens teachers to become agents of change. Using the Vygotsky Space theoretical framework, we draw on multiple data sources generated during classroom observations and coaching sessions to examine how teachers move through the stages of appropriation, transformation, publication, and conventionalization over the course of a 10 to 16-month period. Preliminary results show that teachers exhibited meaningful shifts in their beliefs and teaching practices for ELLs during their coaching experience.

Authors

• Wayne E. Wright, Purdue University

• Jennifer Renn, Purdue University

• Woongsik Choi, Purdue University

• Haiyan Li, Purdue University

• Trish Morita-Mullaney, Purdue University