Studying Program Effectiveness in Preparing Teachers for English Learners

ABSTRACT

To investigate how competent preservice candidates were prepared to teach English learners (ELs), a case study was conducted to examine 30 candidates use of effective practices for ELs during preservice preparation and the first years of teaching. Data included: (1) preservice assignments related to planning and teaching; (2) student teaching supervisors’ records; (3) observations during the first two years of teaching; and (4) English language proficiency results from the first year of teaching in grades 3 and above. Results indicate that some practices which participants were exposed to in their preservice preparation were found with greater frequency than others when comparing preservice artifacts and observations with the first years of teaching. Contextual factors including certification choice, grade level, and content area correlated with the use of some practices. Findings are discussed in relation to existing research on preparing candidates to meet the academic and linguistic needs of ELs.

KEYWORDS:

• Teacher education
• English learners
• preservice preparation

Acknowledgments

This study was supported by funding from grant U405A100103 awarded to the Research Foundation of CUNY on behalf of Lehman College from the Teacher Quality Partnership Grants Program Recovery Act. The researchers would like to thank Rebecca West, Megan Richardson and Allison Rudolph, for their work in data analysis on the research based practices and the NYESLAT scores for the English learners in the classrooms under investigation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. All names in data samples illustrating a candidate’s thinking or an interaction between teacher and students are pseudonyms.

2. We use the word adaptable because as Ball and Fornazi (2011) has pointed out, a core teaching practice is tied to specific content matter and teaching contexts.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the US Department of Education (Teacher Quality Partnership).

Notes on contributors

Nancy Dubetz

Nancy Dubetz is a Professor in the Department of Early Childhood and Childhood Education at Lehman College. Her scholarship focuses on professional development schools and educating preservice and practicing teachers to teach multilingual learners.

Jennifer Collett

Jennifer Collett is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Early Childhood and Childhood Education at Lehman College. Her scholarship focuses on the intersection of literacy and identity development for emergent bilinguals.