Supporting dual language learners in Head Start: teacher beliefs about teaching priorities and strategies to facilitate English language acquisition

ABSTRACT

Prior inquiry into teachers’ beliefs demonstrates that a top priority of early childhood teachers’ is developing children’s social-emotional skills (e.g., Hollingsworth & Winter, 2013; Kowalski, Pretti-Frontczak, & Johnson, 2001). This study builds upon and advances the knowledge base by providing evidence that the pervasiveness of these beliefs extends to Head Start teachers who work with the growing population of dual language learning (DLL) children. In this qualitative study, interviews that included practice-based vignettes for participants to analyze and respond to were conducted with 20 Head Start teachers serving classrooms with large proportions of DLL Latino children. Teachers reported they believed developing social-emotional skills among DLL children is of primary importance, noting that these skills are foundational for supporting DLL children’s English language acquisition. In turn, participating teachers also reported they believed using Spanish in the classroom is a strategy to support social-emotional skill development among DLL children and thus ultimately facilitate their English language acquisition. Finally, the interviews revealed that participating teachers believed English language acquisition occurs naturally and easily within the preschool setting. The implications of these beliefs for the design of preservice early childhood teacher education to meet the needs of today’s linguistically diverse childhood population are discussed.     

Student Evaluation in Co‐operative Learning: teacher cognitions

Abstract

This paper concerns recognition of the authority of teachers’ personal practical knowledge. An Australian teacher reports on her three‐and‐a‐half‐year collaborative study with a Canadian junior high school teacher. The research follows a line of research on teacher knowledge (Elbaz, 1983; Clandinin, 1986; Connelly & Clandinin, 1988; Clandinin & Connelly, 1995) informed by Dewey's (1938) philosophy of education based on experience. Narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) is the methodology guiding the study. A summary of five papers on teacher knowledge emerging from the study is presented. These papers show how the research knowledge is constructed as the researcher and collaborating teacher examine their narratives of experience as a means to articulating their understandings of curriculum and teacher knowledge. This dissertation research argues for recognition of teachers’ personal practical knowledge as knowledge and for recognition of collaborative research as educative for teachers. The implications of this research concern teachers authoring their development and the ways in which teachers’ knowledge is systemically denied.     

Three Korean Heritage Language Teachers’ Identities,Their Identification of Their Students,and Their Instructional Practices

This study examined the instructional focuses and practices of three Korean heritage language (HL) teachers in community-based HL schools related not only to their constructed identities as HL teachers, but also to their students. Constant-comparative analyses of interviews and classroom observations across the three teacher cases showed that each teacher’s identity as an HL teacher was shaped by her earlier immigration experiences and through her relationships within and across a particular historical and social context. Moreover, the three HL teachers’ identities informed how they identified the imagined communities in which their students would eventually participate. The teachers’ different identifications and visions became significant in shaping their instructional focuses and practices related to teaching language and culture in a manner that would enable their students to learn and, therefore, gain access to their communities.     

Meeting the highly qualified teachers challenge

The moulding of the future of a nation depends on the teachers and the education they provide in schools. Research evidence from the US. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) confirms this to be the case. Quantitative analysis of data indicates that measures associated with pre-service teacher preparation are by far the strongest correlates of student achievement (Darling-Hammond 2000). The research report of Wilson, Floden, and Ferrini-Mundy (2001) also suggests a strong relationship between teacher preparation and teacher effectiveness. Other research studies similarly indicate that differences in teacher quality are the most crucial for student achievement when compared with variables such as class size, streaming, or the amount of homework (Anderson & Helms 2001; Mendro 1998; Powell & Anderson 2002; Rivkin, Hanushek & Kain 2001; Saunders & Horn 1994; Strong & Tucker 2000) as possible contributory factors. In the pursuit of improved student achievement, we therefore need to examine seriously the role of teacher variables, ranging from teacher qualifications and their subject matter knowledge, to what motivates them to take up teaching as a career and as a consequence, how they teach in classrooms.     

Australian pre-service teachers' knowledge of phonemic awareness and phonics in the process of learning to read

Recent Australian and international government reports refer to the importance of teacher knowledge in the sound structure of language and its relationship to beginning reading. In this study, a group of 162 pre-service teachers responded to a questionnaire including questions related to their attitudes towards using phonics instruction in the teaching of reading, their knowledge of phonemic awareness and how well prepared they felt to teach beginning reading. Results indicated that most pre-service teachers agreed that phonics was important in teaching reading. However, even though most teachers were able to correctly identify the concept of a phoneme, most could not transfer this knowledge to the counting of phonemes in words. Results also indicated that most pre-service teachers did not feel well prepared to teach beginning readers. It is suggested that these teachers need explicit training in understanding the sound structure of language in order to become effective teachers of reading.     

New teachers’ identity shifts at the boundary of teacher education and initial practice

As teachers enter the school communities of their initial practice, they experience identity shifts that reflect their learning. Throughout teacher education they have constructed an identity informed by their previous school experiences, the ideas and approaches promoted by their teacher education programs, and an ideal of the teachers they hope to become. The complex set of influences at the boundary between their lives as students and their lives as professionals causes them to confront their identities in new and sometimes disruptive ways (Flores & Day, 2006). New teaching situations introduce them to the thinking of experienced teachers, and to the needs of their first groups of learners, challenging the notions they have so far developed about who they are as teachers (Smagorinsky, Cook, Moore, Jackson, & Fry, 2004). This paper reports on interviews with 35 new teachers as they graduate from teacher education programs and enter the profession, and details their learning about agency and role in community resulting in identity changes within this boundary space.     

Mandated curriculum change and a science department: A superficial language convergence?

This article investigates the introduction of a systemic curriculum change, the Essential Learnings curriculum framework, in the Australian state of Tasmania. Using Gee's [(2003). Language in the science classroom: Academic social languages as the heart of school-based literacy. In: R. Yerrick, & W.-M. Roth (Eds.), Establishing scientific classroom discourse communities: Multiple voices of teaching and learning research (pp. 19–37). Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates] six claims regarding the importance of language in science education, the responses of the science teachers within a secondary school to the curriculum reform were investigated. This research utilised a narrative methodology to elucidate the processes by which science teachers attempted to negotiate a sense of meaning for the reforms within their work context. Three particular challenges are highlighted for curriculum reformers. These challenges involve the potential for a linguistic distance between teachers and reformers, understanding the importance of the work context in teacher learning and the dangers of a superficial application of reform language to teacher practices. The article concludes by emphasising that the negotiation of a situated language can provide both teachers and reformers with both coherence and a common ownership of a reform, thus strengthening the potential for its implementation and institutionalisation.     

Who is the ideal teacher? Am I? Similarity and difference in perception of students of education regarding the qualities of a good teacher and of their own qualities as teachers

This research examines two images of teachers as seen by students of education: the ideal teacher and their own self‐image as teachers. The research compares the students’ perceptions of these two images using two sub‐groups of students of education: students at an academic teachers’ college who will be referred to as student teachers and beginning teachers, who, while teaching, are completing their academic degrees at teachers’ colleges or regional academic colleges. Data were collected from 89 students at the two colleges by means of a questionnaire that included open‐ended questions which were analyzed qualitatively. The findings of the research indicate that there are two major categories that comprise perceptions of the ideal teacher: first, personal qualities; and second, knowledge of the subject taught as well as didactic knowledge. Both groups of students similarly attributed great importance to the personal qualities of the ideal teacher, but there is a difference in their perception of the importance of knowledge: the beginning teachers attributed great importance to knowledge and perceived it as a quality similar in importance to personal characteristics, while the student teachers, who had not begun their teaching careers, attributed less importance to knowledge as a characteristic of the ideal teacher. A quality which was less prominent when profiling the ideal teacher is general education and wide perspectives. The teacher as a socializing agent, a person who promotes social goals, was not mentioned at all. Students maintained that, during their studies, they had improved their qualities as ‘empathetic and attentive’ teachers, ‘knowledgeable in teaching methods’, and in ‘leadership’. But they had hardly improved their knowledge of the subject they taught or their level of general knowledge. The discussion of knowledge and the desirable personal qualities of a teacher is relevant to the current debate regarding the relative merits of disciplinary education in contrast to pedagogical education in preparation for teaching as a profession. The clear preference for disciplinary education by policy makers in Israel and elsewhere in the field of teacher education is contradictory to the emphasis placed on the personal development of future teachers and their pedagogical education by the students of education who participated in this research.     

基于CBI课程改革的外语教师知识发展研究:现状与路径

研究以Shulman提出的教师知识及其分类为理论框架,通过对5名CBI教师访谈数据的分析,探讨CBI课程改革背景下,外语教师知识的现状和发展路径。调查研究结果显示:CBI教师对教师知识各层面都作出较为积极的评价,但教师获取相关知识的途径比较单一。在CBI课程改革的初始阶段,有必要通过组建同一学科教师学习共同体、促进教师教学反思和开展有组织的专业活动和在职培训等方式,促进外语教师知识发展,帮助外语教师尽快适应CBI课程改革。     

Language teacher education in Finland and the cultural dimension of foreign language teaching – a student teacher perspective

The increasing importance attributed to the cultural dimension of FL education has entailed new demands for teachers and teacher educators. This paper explores the cultural agenda in Finnish language teacher education from a student teacher perspective. The focus is on the students' perceptions regarding how effectively cultural aspects are dealt with in their training, and how these perceptions may be affected by the length of time they have spent abroad. The empirical evidence suggests that both the language studies and the pedagogical studies tend to address cultural aspects to a small or very small extent. The main emphasis is placed on traditional aspects of culture, such as literature and Realia knowledge, and strategies for teaching language seem to overshadow strategies for teaching language and culture in an integrated way. Interestingly, the students' perceptions seem to vary depending on the extent to which they have experienced first‐hand contacts with other cultures.     

A comparison of inter-professional education programs in preparing prospective teachers and speech and language pathologists for collaborative language–literacy instruction

Ensuring teacher and speech and language pathology graduates are prepared to work collaboratively together to meet the diverse language literacy learning needs of children is an important goal. This study investigated the efficacy of a 3-h inter-professional education program focused on explicit instruction in the language skills that underpin early reading and spelling acquisition. The combined program incorporated student teachers and student speech and language pathologists (SLPs) working together on case-based instructional planning supplemented with structured opportunities for the groups to share their respective expertise in curriculum and linguistic knowledge. Student teachers (n = 18) and student SLPs (n = 27) were randomly assigned to this combined intervention or a comparison intervention that replaced the structured opportunities to share curriculum and linguistic knowledge with spending time together focused on non-language/literacy based activities. Before-and-after comparisons indicated that only the students in the combined condition increased their linguistic/curricular knowledge (p < 0.05). However, neither of the interventions improved students’ case-based instructional planning for children’s literacy learning over and above what they could achieve working individually. Implications for the pre-service preparation of teachers and SLPs are discussed.     

英语师范生教师教育课程的专业化目标

本文从教师的专业知识基础、专业认知过程和专业发展模式等多角度探讨教师专业化的内涵,并通过对我国英语师范教育课程的现状分析,反思其现行课程结构、教学方式、课程资源等方面的"专业化缺陷",特别是师范生英语学科知识与教育学科知识之间、学科理论知识与综合实践知识之间的严重分离现象,提出以专业化为基本方向的师范教育课程目标,以利于师范生"完全人"的专业持续发展。     

Mathematical Communication in the Classroom: A Teacher Makes a Difference

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) states that “Communication is an essential part of mathematics and mathematics education” (2000, p. 60). In fact, communication is one of the five process standards emphasized by NCTM. The communication standard highlights the importance of young children communicating their mathematical thinking coherently to peers and teachers. This standard also states that young children should use math language to express mathematical ideas (Baroody, 2000; Ginsburg, Inoue, & Seo, 1999; NCTM, 2000; Rubenstein & Thompson, 2002; Whitin & Whitin, 2003). Teachers must create a link between mathematics and language (Rubenstein & Thompson, 2002; Stigler & Hiebert, 2004). This article focuses on the informal strategies used by Melissa (a kindergarten teacher) that promoted the use of math language. The strategies were identified during a 3-month observational period in her classroom at Clinton Elementary (pseudonym). Clinton Elementary is located in a low-income neighborhood of a southern city that has a population of approximately 450,000. The neighborhood population is predominantly African-American (Davis, 1994).     

Decentering: A construct to analyze and explain teacher actions as they relate to student thinking

Mathematics educators and writers of mathematics education policy documents continue to emphasize the importance of teachers focusing on and using student thinking to inform their instructional decisions and interactions with students. In this paper, we characterize the interactions between a teacher and student(s) that exhibit this focus. Specifically, we extend previous work in this area by utilizing Piaget’s construct of decentering (The language and thought of the child. Meridian Books, Cleveland, 1955) to explain teachers’ actions relative to both their thinking and their students’ thinking. In characterizing decentering with respect to a teacher’s focus on student thinking, we use two illustrations that highlight the importance of decentering in making in-the-moment decisions that are based on student thinking. We also discuss the influence of teacher decentering actions on the quality of student–teacher interactions and their influence on student learning. We close by discussing various implications of decentering, including how decentering is related to other research constructs including teachers’ development and enactment of mathematical knowledge for teaching.     

Are preservice teachers prepared to teach struggling readers?

Reading disabilities such as dyslexia, a specific learning disability that affects an individual’s ability to process written language, are estimated to affect 15–20% of the general population. Consequently, elementary school teachers encounter students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, recent evidence may suggest that teacher preparation programs are not providing preservice teachers with information about basic language constructs and other components related to scientifically based reading instruction. As a consequence preservice teachers have not exhibited explicit knowledge of such concepts in previous studies. Few studies have sought to assess preservice teachers’ knowledge about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts. The purpose of the present study was to examine elementary school preservice teachers’ knowledge of basic language constructs and their perceptions and knowledge about dyslexia. Findings from the present study suggest that preservice teachers, on average, are able to display implicit skills related to certain basic language constructs (i.e., syllable counting), but fail to demonstrate explicit knowledge of others (i.e., phonics principles). Also, preservice teachers seem to hold the common misconception that dyslexia is a visual perception deficit rather than a problem with phonological processing. Implications for future research as well as teacher preparation are discussed.     

Teacher education for World English speaking pre-service teachers: Making transnational knowledge exchange for mutual learning

Pre-service teachers are taught that the funds of knowledge their students bring to school provide intellectual resources to be engaged through productive pedagogies. Teacher education may assist and/or hinder World English Speaking (WES) pre-service teachers in gaining access to the teaching profession by doing likewise. The interpretative case study presented in this paper involves exploring possibilities for teacher education programs to make transnational knowledge connections through WES pre-service teachers. Evidence from interviews with WES pre-service teachers and their Anglophone teacher educators are analysed to elaborate issues confronting teacher education programs involving World English Speakers. The findings indicate that teamwork which is constructed to privilege the knowledge of Anglophone pre-service teachers over their WES peers is questionable. Further, WES pre-service teachers are not only structurally disadvantaged by teamwork practices that privilege local knowledge, they are also challenged by teacher educators’ assessment procedures. The pressures created on teacher educators’ workloads, may lead to ‘lean and mean’ assessment procedures which serve to contain excessive demands on their labour, but do not necessarily resolve the dilemma of how to use assessment practices that minimise WES pre-service teachers’ learning.     

谈教师课堂教学语言的优化

课堂教学语言是教师帮助学生打开知识宝库的钥匙,是连接师生心灵的纽带。教师的教学语言做到言之有礼、言之有序、言之有物、言之有节,这种优化的教学语言定会让学生耳醉其音、心醉其行、乐而忘苦、乐此不疲,优化了教学语言,就定能达成优化的教学效果。