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“The Topic: Teachers’ Professional Development to Improve English Language Learners’ Achievements in Science at High school”.

 

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to document the effect of professional programs on teachers’ abilities and students with different languages and cultures. The study usedqualitative method, and it presented analysis of professional development programs on teaching Science and literacy to improve English language students. It includes 15 studies that indicate a positive impact for improving teachers’ abilities and English language-learners’ achievements. The instruments that used are questioners, interviews, case study, and checklists. The research findingsshowed that intervention of professional development that conducted in the studies are effective to improve teachers understanding of the needs of students with second language and cultures. Moreover, there is a significant growth for foreign students’ achievements in science and literacy classes as a result of the intervention that should be permit and encouraged by educational policy. The findings from the study are related to the research literature of teachers’ professional development for English language learners. The limitations and challenges of the study will discuss in the discussion part.

Key Words: Professional development, Teachers’ coaching, English learners,

Introduction:

Statement of The Problem:

The purpose of the study is to investigate professional development programs of teachers in science and literacy classes for English language learners at High school. According to Reeves (2006), most of teachers today are not trained to work with English language learners. There is a need to design programs to improve teaching of English learners. Beykont (2002) and Echevarriaet al (2004), indicated that the main reason for decrease the scores in standardized tests of English language learners is the lack of teachers coaching about the needs of students with different languages and cultures. They have higher rates of drop out from the school and lower scores more than Native English speakers and European American (as cited in Harutunian, 2007).

Literature Review:

Background for Designing Teachers Professional Development Programs to Address Foreign Students

United State has the largest numbers of immigrants more than other countries. According to Fix & Passel (2003) the rates of immigrants has increased from 10 million to 31 millions between 1970 and 2000, so the numbers of English language learners have increased in public schools (as cited in Harutunian, 2007). As a result of the increasing in the rates of English learners, the teachers have faced challenges to teach them especially in science and literacy. Teachers need more opportunities to improve their understanding and perspectives of science instruction to teach foreign students who have difficulties in learning (Adamson, Rivera, Lewis, Thornton and LeRoy,2008;Trent& Kea,2013).National Research Council (2000), stated that engagement in science inquiry is very significant for teachers to assist students to foster their abilities in inquiry (as cited in Lee, Adamson, Rivera, Lewis, Thornton and LeRoy,2008).

                Largest numbers of elementary school teachers do not know about teaching scientific content and how to integrate English language in science and literacy (Santau, Rivera & Huggins, 2010). Incorporation of science with English language and literacy is very necessary to meet English language learners' needs and improve their achievement in science concepts, vocabulary and writing (Shaw, Lyon, Stoddart, Menon & Mosqueda,2014).According to Luykx et al (2007) and Zhao (2010), teachers are unrealizable about the influences of cultures and languages on students’ achievements as well as they ignore the methodologies for teaching diversity of students (as cited in Buxton, Salinas, Mahotiere, Lee &Secada, P.32, 2013). Teachers are responsible to view the languages based on human development perspective, and they also should apply the knowledge to teach academic contents. In addition, teachers need to understand the practices that allow students with various levels of English proficiency to engage academically in English language learning as well as offer for these students several patterns to show their learning in science (Santau, Rivera & Huggins, P. 774, 2010).

Students’ Achievement in the United States and Achievement Gap

Lee&Luykx (2007), illustrated that there were achievement gaps among students from different ethics and cultures in standardized tests of science education. If it is assumed that most children obtain high academic achievement, the achievement gaps occur because is of available opportunities for varied groups of students to benefit from those opportunities.Gonzales (2008), explained that based on reports of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), scores in science for English language students and others with different backgrounds improved slowly while other students score increased significantly between 2000 to 2005 (as cited in Santau, Rivera & Huggins, P. 776, 2010). The achievement gap is a critical issue because ELL students need teachers with high quality. Villareal (2005) stated that the core reason of achievement gap among white students and minority students include English language learners is teachers’ quality (as cited inRodriguez, Abrego&Rubinp, 2014).

Goldenberg (2008) reports:

On the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress, fourth- grade ELLs scored 36points below non-ELLs in reading and 25 points below non-ELLs in Math. The gaps among eighth graders were even larger - 42 points in reading and 37 points in Math. (as cited in Rodriguez, Abrego&Rubinp, 2014).

Effective Professional Development intervention for Teachers in Science and Literacy

According to the case study byHarutunian (2007), the findings show how teachers got rich awareness regarding English language learners needs and their cultures and families needs. Before the case study, there were some teachers who did not consider any issue related to students’ family and cultures. At the end of study, some changes appeared in teachers’ understanding and knowledge about students needs. Teachers who participated in the study learned more how students are different in culture and knowledge, and how the differences impact academic achievement. The teachers became more aware about the struggles that face foreign students to learn. The training programs alerted teachers to pay close attentions to their students by some strategies. Some teachers illustrated how they applied instructional strategies as a resultof intervention. The teachers Joan said “I do a lot more dip sticking along the way, where as before I may not have done that, p. 117”. The result of study by Lee and Rivera (2012), illustrated that teachers' knowledge about diversity and students’ needs is increased. The intervention also can help teachers by recognize their strengths and improve their weakness of the practice and knowledge (Santau,Secada, Rivera, Cone & Lee,2010).

The purpose and rational of the study

The goal of the study is to assess the quality of intervention for improving English language teachers in science and literacy as well meeting the linguistic and culturally needs of students. Both students and teachers at high school participated in the professional development programs. The study aims at explore the relationship among level of learning and teaching methods and students' achievement.  Another goal is evaluating teachers understanding about the various teaching strategies and help them to recognize the significance of relationship between their styles in teaching and students progress in education. In fact, there is a gap in achievement between native English language and non-English Language speakers because of teachers’ abilities and strategies that they used in classroom. Implementation of professional development programs can enhance teachers to teach those students from different cultures and languages.I have found that previous studies related to topic is conducted to improve teachers and English language learners at Elementary school and ignore students at high school. I decide to design the study at High school to exam foreign students learning and teachers’ methodologiesin science and literacy. If I find a significant relationship among students’ achievement and teachers’ strategies variables, I will inform that teaching and learning styles play a great role in academic students’ achievement and teaching progress. The following research questions are the guiding of the study:

1-How to integrate literacy development and English language into science instruction to improve English learners’ performance?

2-How the professional development affects teachers' practices and believes in incorporate science and English language with literacy?

3-How professional development in science and literacy improve English learners’ achievement?

Methods:

Research Design:

This study is a qualitative research which designed to understand howprofessional development for science’s teachersby integrating literacy and English language into science instruction affect students’ performance and achievement. The qualitative design is appropriate for this study because it is concerned with interpretation of human behaviors and believes,and understanding perspectives of participants.The method I use is a phenomenological study that allowed us to gain deep understanding to the teachers’ view and believe about the professional development and its' result on the science students from second language learners. This method is beneficial to get the perceptions and experiences of others regard the issue of the research. A Phenomenological study focus on description of the human experiences by using interview as a method to collect data. Participants are chosen to share their experiences and feelings by personal interview (Ary,Jacobs, Sorensen,& Walker, p. 501,502, 2013). Both quantitative and qualitative methods have been widely used in prior researches that focused professional development for science teachers, but this study will focus on using only qualitative.

Participant

The sample for the study includes teachers from Public High school at Fairfax county. The school has 325 students and 30% of them were English language learners’ students while 70% were native speakers. There were approximately 15 of teachers who participated in the study, and they were selected non randomly.I have selected teachers by purposive selection techniques that focus on specific features of participants. In fact,a purposive sample is appropriate for qualitative research because it provide enough understanding for researchers, and participants in this sample provide sufficient information that is related to the topic(Ary,Jacobs, Sorensen,& Walker, p. 456).

Research Questions

1-How to integrate literacy development and English language into science instruction to improve English learners’ performance?

2-How the professional development affects teachers' practices and believes in incorporate science and English language with literacy?

3-How professional development in science and literacy improve English learners’ achievement?

Instruments

The personal unstructured interviews are the instruments in my research which based on collect teachers’ opinions regard coaching programs to improve English language learners. Each interview took 45 minutes to one hour and the interviewers chose the place to conduct the interview. The question format is open-ended question that gave them freedom to respond.The places were very comfortable for participants to answer and explain their opinions. I have used writing and notes to document the interview as well as audio records.

Procedure:

                The study included one independent variable which is Professional development intervention, and two dependent variables which are English language students’ achievement and teachers’ perspectives and strategies. The analysis was based on interviews with teachers to collect believes and suggestions about the interventions in science. The first questions regard the effective of intervention in science and literacy for students learning. Teacher were asked about their opinions about the best coaching programs in science to improve teachers’ abilities for English learners. Also, I asked them about integration of literacy and English language in science content to facilitate foreign students learning. Teachers responded about and how long time they think is appropriate for conducting the interventions.

 The second part of interviewis about the effect of interventions on students learning.Teachers explained that their knowledge in science and science instruction can affect students understanding and achievement especially when teachers integrate English language and literacy into science. Moreover, they responded how the professional development improve their abilities regard teaching English learners in science classes. Some of them stated how the programs alert them about the challenges that those students face in science. Teachers who participate in the intervention pay more attention in science class to English language learners students and listen carefully to their questions. This study

In qualitative analysis by personal interview, I analyzed the data when I review the data, and thenorganize them. After that, I code the data and reduce them, and then put them in unites. I should to see the codes that are similar and then put them in unit under categories. The categories should be linked into themes. At the end, I will tell a story about the data and explain the result.According to Ary, Jacobs, Sorensen, & Walker (2013), the researchers in qualitative study make inductive coding from the pieces of individual data. They put the codes together under one categories or themes so that lead to understand the context.

Results

This part includes teachers’ perceptions about how professional development programs in science affect teachers’ knowledge and strategies, students’ learning in science and literacy. The most of teachers (14) stated that the intervention promote their knowledge related to science when they participated in the program. One o f them said, “I got deep understanding and knowledge for teaching science for those students who from different languages and cultures”. Also, five teachers explained that they were able to offer well lessons in science because they understood the best methods and strategies to teach students. However, one teachers said, “I already have a knowledge and understanding about teaching science for different students. In my opinion, intervention did not effect my ability because I have experiences since ten years in this class”. In fact, the majority of teachers got advantages of the interventions to change their perceptions and believes in connection between science and literacy and English language.

Teachers in the school indicated that the intervention can be effective to enhance English language learning and address students’ language and cultures into science. One teacher stated, “professional development had impact on literacy development and English language for ESOL students. Because their vocabulary increased, their writing got better and reflected their understanding of science instruction”. The majority of teachers reported that increasing vocabulary in various language was helpful for students’ knowledge. One teacher said, “The level of English proficiency has reinforced after providing the vocabulary in many languages”. Students’ scores and achievements are improved when their teachers engaged in the intervention’s programs. Four teachers also commented that materials can support English development for foreign students, as one of them mentioned, “The intervention was clearly effective for my ESOL students because they have opportunities to ask and explain their ideas in the class”.

Three of 15 teachers explained that integration literacy and vocabulary in different languages is considered as motivator for students’ learning. One teacher said, "Integration literacy and English vocabulary into science assists students to understand the value of both classes and how they are connected". The value of the integration appeared in connecting skills of literacy with science to deliver the information to students. The teachers recognized that the students realized howthe relationship between two classes is very significant.Moreover, two teachers pointed out literacy skills are increased such as “reading a story in science with improving literacy skills”. In addition, eight teachers demonstrated that strategies of instruction such as using oral and visual skills, corporative learning and small- group work are used heavily after the program. Significantly, incorporation in literacy and English language in science lessons has positive impact on learning process especially for students from other languages.

Categories, codes and themes	Number of teachers
Intervention enhance knowledge and strategies of teachers Enhanced knowledge of science no impact Instructional strategies Integration literacy and science Strategies development Vocabulary in three languages Impact on student learning Increased literacy skills Vocabulary development	14 1 5 8 3 4 15

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion and Implication:

This study examined the impact of professional development in science and literacy on teachers and students at High school. It suggests that inquiry professional development that based on connected science and English language is effective to aid teachers through science content and thus develop students learning in the class. The result of the study consistent with findings of other researches.In addition to existing literature, the result of this research confirmed that science content became a meaningful for English language learners after teachers connect science activities to language activities.To got better understanding about students’ achievement into science and literacy, I sought teachers' perspectives about intervention efforts. Teachers perspectives urge to integrate literature on intervention of science for helping various students including English language learners.Teachers emphasize the significance of reading and writing in science to provide teachers more knowledge and practices. Professional development also served them awareness about the limitations of their knowledge (Hart & Lee, 2003).

The perspectives of teachers were identical to their perceptions and believes of the impact on students learning. The predominate themes in the table pointed out as the teachers' knowledge in science lesson, they also obtained effective new strategies and practices that support students to understand and express their ideas in the class.Moreover, there were significantly development in students learning in writing, vocabulary and science concepts.The intervention contributes to promote students learning by building their concepts in systematic ways and then leads to enhance the mastery and proficiency in the classroom. The teachers should use multiple methods that meet the needs of foreign students including visual, kinesthetic and audio (Shaw, 2014). Lincoln and Rademacher (2006) clarified the importance of utilizing learning styles for ESL students, and that should be integrated in the classroom instruction.

The study contributes to the literature by offering perspectives of teachers, and supporting teachers to integrate literacy with science and English language for ELL students. Also, it highlights how teachers' strategies changed after involvement in intervention and that affect students learning. The result emphasizes how emerging literature on professional development program was effective to enhanceteachers’ strategies and students’ skills (Amaral et al. 2002; Fradd et al. 2002; Hampton and Rodriguez 2001; Hart and Lee 2003; Lee et al. 2004;Amaral, Garrison &Klentschy 2002).Although the research has positive results, there are many limitation during conducting the study. One limitation was the small sample size of teachers and they were interviewed once time. The second limitation is collecting the data based only on interview source.

In phenomenological study, the interview is typically used with people who have experience, and some data may be use such as observations, novels and journal. As phenomenology study is a considered as qualitative type, it may have threats of validity. In this study, there was a threat of credibility because I used only one source to collect the data. According to , to avoid threats of credibility, the researcher should use multiple sources of data, methods and observers. Utilizing many types of data sources such as observations, interview and documents can increase the probability of understanding the phenomena by views of participants. Also, multiple sources or triangulation can support the conclusions and findings of the study.Creswell & Miller (2000), defined the triangulation when they said “a validity procedure where researchers search for convergence among multiple and different sources of information to form themes or categories in a study” (p.126).

                The future research will have a big sample to determine the effect of intervention by using a case study over the years. It will be based on multiple source including interviews, observation and review of documents in order to get deep understanding of teachers’ perspectives and practices in teaching as well as examine students’ outcomes. Case study allows the researcher to understand the case in the whole environment in present events and past, and understand thoughts, emotions and believes. This type will help me to examine the phenomena, its factors and changes over times (). The next research will examine the students progress over the year in science and literacy to see if the intervention affects them and their teachers positively. In sum, this research substantiates the importance and needs for implementing more study of this topic. the replicators of this research should provide deep descriptions of the context so that the aspects of the study including teachers' practices are identified and then promote the students' outcomes and teachers' strategies.