Dismantling Silos: Facilitating English Learner Instructional Change in Science Teaching

• In Event: 30.070 - Knowledge to Action: Articulating and Enacting a Practice-Based Pedagogy for Teaching English Learners

Abstract

Purpose
Building the capacity of mainstream content area teachers to provide rigorous content and language instruction for their English learner (EL) students remains a perpetual challenge (Lucas & Grinberg, 2008). Research-practice partnerships may help advance our understanding of professional development (PD) approaches that best support teacher and student learning. This paper examines the conditions that facilitated the integration of EL and science expertise, practices, and tools in a context of ambitious secondary science instruction.
Theoretical Framework
Our research draws from literature on the mechanisms related to improvement of teaching practices: the work of teacher leaders (Mangin & Stoelinga, 2008), the development of supportive tools and routines, and the joint engagement of multiple stakeholders in a shared problem space (Bryk et.al., 2010; Coburn, 2001; Coburn & Russell, 2008). In this study, we attend to specific arrangements of actors, structures, and activities that encourage a focus on EL instruction within science teaching.
Methods and Data Sources
Our job-embedded professional development project assembled teams of fifty secondary science teachers from ten schools, secondary science coaches, EL facilitators, and researchers in a diverse urban school district. We met to inquire into and support the learning and development of science and EL practices through multiple day-long “Studio Days” in schools, following a modified “lesson study” model (Lewis, Perry, & Murata, 2006). All studio days were videotaped and coded analytically along a variety of dimensions, including who initiated and sustained the interaction, the focus of discussion (practices, tools, noticings about students, etc.), and the EL-specificity of the interaction.
We analyzed conversations from 2013-14 and 2014-15 Studio Days and identified 170 instances of coaches and teachers discussing EL teaching and learning. Instances ranged from 20 seconds to 20 minutes and included at least two participants per instance. We also coded how various role actors (EL and Science coaches, researchers and teachers) participated in these conversations.
Results
This paper builds on work presented at last year’s annual meeting which focused on the development of three hybridized EL-science practices effective for student and teacher learning. We define hybrid teaching practices as those that support disciplinary learning and participation and strengthen academic language. This year’s work focuses on the conditions that enabled the development and spread of these hybrid practices. We found that changes of and innovations in science instructional practice for EL students occurred in contexts where: (1) there was a clear and explicit focus on EL students and their learning (such as in sheltered classrooms, or classrooms with a critical mass of EL students); (2) science teachers had consistent access to EL expertise and experienced regular presses to focus on EL students; (3) teacher leaders, specifically EL and science instructional coaches, collaborated in planning for student learning and teacher learning; and (4) teams of teachers and teacher leaders collaborated in all-day, job-embedded, inquiry-driven professional development.
Scholarly Significance
This paper describes the breaking of EL and science silos at the district level, the university level, and within classrooms to create ambitious and equitable learning opportunities for students and teachers.

Authors

• Anna Van Windekens, University of Washington - Seattle

• Kerry Soo Von Esch, Seattle University

• Jessica J. Thompson, University of Washington

• Jennifer Richards, University of Washington

• Karin Lohwasser, University of Washington