Equitable Science Instruction for Emergent Multilingual Students: Exploring Relationships Between Professional Learning and Teacher Practice

Session Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

This symposium illustrates how researchers can accept responsibility for addressing persistent inequalities in the education of emergent multilingual learners and partner with practitioners to improve the opportunities available to multilingual students to engage in rigorous science learning and develop language. More specifically, the session explores how professional learning can guide elementary teachers in designing science instruction that engages emergent multilingual students in scientific sensemaking. The papers position this sensemaking as a necessary and authentic context for language development. The session offers a framework for conceptualizing the integration of science and language learning and empirical examples of teachers' professional journeys towards such integration.

Sub Unit

• Division G - Social Context of Education / Division G - Section 3: Languages, Literacies, and Representations

Chair

• Daniella Molle, University of Wisconsin

Papers

• Why It Matters How Students Interact When They Engage in Disciplinary Learning - Daniella Molle, University of Wisconsin

• Changes in the Practice of First-Grade Science Teachers Related to Professional Development - Lynn M. Jeka, University of Nevada - Reno; David T. Crowther, University of Nevada - Reno

• A Participation-Focused Approach to Engaging Emergent Multilingual Learners in Science - Jennifer Wilfrid, University of Wisconsin - Madison

Discussant

• Douglas B. Larkin, Montclair State University