Session Information
31 SES 14 B, How Do Learners Experience and Negotiate the Language Classroom Environment
Paper Session
Contribution
For a vast majority of pre- and in-service teachers, teaching multilingual learners in content classrooms is still challenging. Evidence shows that multilingual learners have advantageous competencies and abilities, due to their linguistic diversity. However, linguistic heterogeneity in classrooms is often believed to be a struggle. Reasons are the prevailing monolingual habitus in the (German) school system (Gogolin, 2009) as well as the lack of preparation for teaching multilingual learners in teacher education. Teachers of all subjects need competencies in the field of German as a second language (GSL) / linguistically responsive teaching to ensure that they are capable of dealing with heterogeneity in classrooms as well as teaching students in a linguistically responsive way to strengthen their learning processes. Opportunities to learn (OTL) in teacher education though are very divers so far and are not empirically evaluated their effectiveness for learning. Therefore, the interdisciplinary project DaZKom-Video is developing a video-based test instrument that is based on the GSL-competency model (Ehmke et al., 2018). Not only video vignettes but also oral, audiotaped responses are used to measure performance-oriented teachers´ competencies in GSL / linguistically responsive teaching. In accordance with Dreyfus & Dreyfus (1989) and findings from teachers’ expertise research, the model presumes that expertise is not exclusively experience-based and only arises through repeated successful coping with professional demands, but is also tied to the situations in which it arises. For this reason, video vignettes of GSL-relevant teaching situations are used as stimuli with attached items, based on the situation-specific skills perception and decision making (cf. Blömeke et al., 2015). While the aspect of perception is related to concepts of noticing (van Es & Sherin, 2002) and professional vision (Seidel & Stürmer, 2014), decision making is also relevant in other studies (e.g. Lindmeier 2011). Lindmeier classifies reflective competencies and action-related competencies. This study measures action-related competencies by asking for decisions teachers would make in multilingual teaching-situations. The methodologically innovative oral answer format is intended to record the performance of the respondents in the best possible way. This leads to the following questions:
1.) Is the developed test instrument able to measure competencies regarding linguistically diverse students?
2.) How do individual GSL experience, the use of institutional and non-institutional GSL-related opportunities to learn, and the GSL competency measured by the test correlate?
Method
Data were collected with a computer-based test instrument consisting of video-based stimuli and two corresponding items each. The development of the items is based on the situation-specific skills perception and decision-making (Blömeke et. al, 2015). The instrument offers two different kinds of items to each video-based stimulus: 1.) What do you perceive? 2.) How would you act if you were in this situation? The test consists of ten video-vignettes, one to three minutes long, followed by the two above mentioned questions. Additionally, the test includes a multiple-choice-questionnaire to survey OTL, personal data such as experience and education, and beliefs about multilingualism in school (Fischer, Hammer, & Ehmke, 2018). The test is presented on tablets with headphones and the oral responses are audiotaped. To evaluate the answers, a coding manual is used that was validated by expert interviews. Data for this paper were collected in a pilot study from October 2018 to January 2019 (N = 150) in different educational contexts in Germany: pre-service teacher trainings at universities and in-service teacher trainings for experienced teachers.
Expected Outcomes
The analyses of the data show a good reliability in the double coding (Cohen´s Kappa κ = 0.76, PÜ Ø = 88.84). First analyses show that the teaching experience of respondents with multilingual learners highly correlates (r = 0.226; p ≤ 0.01) with GSL competency. Also, the assumption that completing additional qualifications in GSL influences teachers in a positive way is confirmed (r = 0.263; p ≤ 0.01). These results are theory-compliant since the teaching experience with multilingual learners has provided the respondents with opportunities to successfully master similar teaching situations to those offered in the video test while developing competencies at higher levels. The relation between a positive test result and having an additional qualification also speaks for the importance of opportunities to learn. The opportunities to learn of those respondents who achieve the highest score can therefore be used to draw conclusions about relevant educational content. This offers the potential to specifically improve teacher training in the area of GSL / linguistically responsive teaching and may possibly lead to curriculum revisions in teacher education programs concerning German as a second language, but also multilingual learners in Europe
References
Blömeke, S., Gustafsson, J.-E. & Shavelson, R.J. (2015). Beyond dichotomies: Competence viewed as a continuum. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 223, 3-13. Dreyfus, H. L. & Dreyfus, S. E. (1989). Mind over machine. The power of human intuition and expertise in the era of the computer. Oxford: Blackwell. Es, E. van & Sherin, M. (2002). Learning to Notice: Scaffolding New Teachers’ Interpretations of Classroom Interactions. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 10(4), 571-596. Fischer, N., Hammer, S., & Ehmke, T (2018). Überzeugungen zu Sprache im Fachunterricht: Erhebungsinstrument und Skalendokumentation. In T. Ehmke, S. Hammer, A. Köker, U. Ohm & B. Koch-Priewe (eds.): Professionelle Kompetenzen angehender Lehrkräfte im Bereich Deutsch als Zweitsprache. Münster: Waxmann. Lindmeier, A. (2011). Modeling and Measuring Knowledge and Competencies of Teachers. A Threefold Domain-Specific Structure Model for Mathematics. Münster: Waxmann. Ehmke, T., Hammer, S., Köker, A., Ohm, U. & Koch-Priewe, B. (2018). Professionelle Kompetenzen angehender Lehrkräfte im Bereich Deutsch als Zweitsprache. Münster: Waxmann. Gogolin, I. (2009). Zweisprachigkeit und die Entwicklung bildungssprachlicher Fähigkeiten. In I. Gogolin & U. Neumann (eds.), Streitfall Zweisprachigkeit - The Bilingualism Controversy (pp. 263-280). Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Es, E. van & Sherin, M. (2002). Learning to Notice: Scaffolding New Teachers’ Interpretations of Classroom Interactions. Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education, 10(4), 571-596.
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