Identifying Core Teaching Practices That Ensure Academic Success for English Language Learners

• In Event: Educating Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Learners: New Approaches to Practice in Teacher Education

Abstract

Objectives
Findings from a longitudinal investigation of core teaching practices that ensure English language learners’ (ELLs) access to grade level content and language are presented. Descriptions of core practices are presented along with examples from artifacts of teaching collected during the preservice program and participants’ first two years of teaching. Core practices are compared to participants’ attitudes towards teaching ELLs and gains in children’s language proficiency.
Theoretical Framework
Teaching practice must be the focus of teacher preparation (Core Practice Consortium, 2014; Hiebert & Morris, 2012). Zeichner (2012) suggests that core practices of good teaching can be divided into two strands: (1) practices embedded in the teaching of core subjects and, (2) practices used across subjects and grade levels. In the current study, a third strand is identified: practices for a particular population of learners, i.e., ELLs. Identifying core teaching practices for ELLs is not intended to ignore that core practices should serve all students. However, a focus on generic practices can miss important practices that, although effective for all learners, are essential to the success of ELLs (de Jong and Harper, 2005; Dolson & Burnham-Massey, 2011; Palmer & Martinez, 2013; Yoon, 2007).
McDonald, Kazemi and Kavanagh (2013) identified a preliminary set of six criteria characterizing core teaching practices and these were used as a foundation to construct five core ELL teaching practices encompassing a wide range of research-based instructional approaches found in the ELL literature. The five core practices are:
1. Helping English learners develop proficiency in academic language,
2. Using learner resources to support new learning,
3. Providing comprehensible input,
4. Promoting oral language development to enhance academic learning, and
5. Using culturally and linguistically responsive formal and informal assessments
Participants were exposed to these practices during the second semester of their preservice program and prior to their clinical residency.
Method & Data Sources
A mixed method, triangulation design was used. An initial set of codes for each core practice was constructed from the literature review and piloted using data for two participants. The initial codes were then modified and two researchers independently analyzed data for 17 participants. Data included preservice electronic portfolios, supervisors’ records, and an observation in the first and second years of teaching. Quantitative data included demographic and contextual information, scaled responses to attitude surveys, and student scores on the state language exam.
Results
There was a relationship between the core teaching practices introduced in the preservice program and those observed in the first years of teaching, though the strength of these relationships was affected by grade level and whether a practice was applied repeatedly across the preservice program. Participants who completed the program were more effective at moving their ELLs to higher levels of proficiency than a comparable group of first year teachers in the same school district.
Significance
Meaningful evaluation of teacher preparation can only be achieved by studying what candidates are able to accomplish with learners once they become classroom teachers. Procedures piloted in this study serve as tools for evaluating program impact.

Authors

• Nancy E. Dubetz, Lehman College - CUNY

• Jennifer Marie Collett, Lehman College - CUNY