Teachers' Pedagogical Differences During ESL Block Among Bilingual and English-Immersion Kindergarten Classrooms in a Randomized Trial Study

Abstract

Using a low-inference observational instrument, the authors empirically described and compared pedagogical behaviors in bilingual and structured English-immersion programs serving Spanish-speaking English language learners in a large urban school district in Southeast Texas. The two programs included both intervention/control of each type during ESL block. The 9,508 observations were collected four times during the kindergarten year from 54 classrooms in 23 schools. Findings indicated that within the English-immersion program, teachers in experimental, as opposed to control, classrooms allocated more instructional time (p < 0.01) in (a) cognitive areas and expressive-language-related tasks in English, (b) teacher-ask/student-answer types of activities, (c) academic visual scaffolding and leveled questions, and (d) encouraging student interactions. Similar differences were found in teachers between experimental and control bilingual classrooms.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The research described in this article is supported by Grant R305P030032, funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The contents, findings, and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the positions or policies of IES.

We thank our IES project coordinator, our grant project coordinators, graduate assistants, teachers, paraprofessionals, parents, and school and district officials, who made this research possible.

Notes

¹“Low-inference instrument” refers to a formal instrument that has a time-sampling technique and that captures specific events and instructional characteristics in the classroom.