Broadening Participation among Multilingual Learners through High School Teachers' Professional Learning Experiences in the Instructional Conversation Pedagogy

This exploratory project will develop and test a model of professional learning for high school teachers in which they learn how to embed the Instructional Conversation pedagogy within standards-aligned scientific and engineering practices.

• Sponsor
  National Science Foundation Discovery Research K-12
  $449,555

• Principal investigator
  Paula J. Mellom
  Senior research scientist, Center for Multilingual-Learner Education, Research, and Innovative Teaching (MERIT)
  Office of Research and Graduate Education
  

• Co-principal investigators
  John Mativo
  Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor, Department of Workforce Education and Instructional Technology
  

  Rebecca K. Hixon
  Assistant research scientist, MERIT
  Office of Research and Graduate Education
  

• Active since
  August 2024

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Abstract

Across the nation, many school districts are experiencing rapid expansion in the enrollment of multilingual learners, yet many high school teachers do not have corresponding opportunities to learn how to effectively support these students’ engagement in scientific and engineering practices. This exploratory project will address this issue by developing and testing a model of professional learning for high school teachers in which they learn how to embed the Instructional Conversation pedagogy within standards-aligned scientific and engineering practices.

This professional learning model is designed to benefit all students, including those receiving English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) services. Under this model, high school science teachers will collaborate with high school ESOL teachers to co-develop linguistically sustaining instructional materials that provide students with intentionally scaffolded opportunities to use scientific dialogue as they collaborate to explain natural phenomena or design solutions through engineering. High school science teachers will use these co-developed instructional materials to teach classes that include students receiving ESOL services, and they will reflect and debrief with an instructional coach regarding whether and how their instructional approaches supported students’ dialogue-rich engagement with scientific and engineering practices.

This research will explore whether and how the professional learning experiences supported shifts in the teachers’ instruction. Materials associated with the field-tested professional learning model will be disseminated widely via professional networks of science, engineering, and language educators and researchers. Ultimately, this project is likely to broaden participation in science and engineering fields by advancing quality science education for multilingual learners in high schools.

Researchers will investigate whether and how a promising professional learning model contributes to shifts in high school teachers’ science and engineering instruction with multilingual learners. The professional learning model includes three learning lab cycles, each aligned with a specific science or engineering practice. During each cycle, high school science and ESOL teachers will co-create joint productive activity task cards, aligned with principles of the Instructional Conversation pedagogy, which guide student collaboration and dialogue as they engage in a specific standards-aligned task. Instructional coaches will debrief and reflect with educators regarding their implementation of the task cards. During the next learning lab, high school teachers will reflect on the implementation feedback to co-design improved task cards based on a different science standard.

To investigate whether this professional learning approach supports the teachers in enacting practices aligned with the principles of the Instructional Conversation pedagogy, researchers will generate the following types of data:

• Teacher reflection logs
• Teacher-generated artifacts, such as task cards
• Transcripts from teacher focus groups
• Observations of instruction

Thematic and text analysis will explore potential shifts in teachers’ pedagogical practices with multilingual learners. Additional research will explore how specific supports, as embedded within teacher professional learning experiences, foster effective multidisciplinary collaboration among educators. This research purpose will be achieved through thematic analysis of transcripts from focus groups with the educators and teacher reflection logs, in addition to targeted purposeful transcriptions of recordings of the professional learning sessions. The resulting professional learning model and associated materials will be shared via an existing professional learning community, focused on the Instructional Conversation pedagogy, of over 2,500 educators. Pedagogical materials and empirical findings will be shared widely through professional networks of practitioners, professional development providers, and researchers in relevant fields.

The Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models, and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.