Session Information
31 SES 09 A, Observations of Pedagogical Excellence in Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN): Results from a Four Nation Study
Symposium
Contribution
Despite the differing sociopolitical, historical, cultural and linguistic contexts of various nations (for instance, the nations in this study, Germany, Finland, US and the UK) a common problem exists. Increasing numbers of students are attending school in a language of instruction that they are also still learning (students we call “multilingual”) and the schools and teachers may have little preparation or support to advance multilingual student success (Becker-Mrotzek, Hentschel, Hippmann, & Linnemann, 2012, Lucas, 2011; Murphy & Unthia, 2015). This study is grounded in critical sociocultural theory as operationalized by the Standards for Effective Pedagogy (Teemant, Leland & Berghoff, 2014) and included observations of 32 teachers in four countries teaching across multiple content areas (language arts, social studies/history, mathematics, and physical education). All of the participants in our study were regular content teachers across varying grade/age levels (classrooms with children ages 5-15) who had a local reputation for excellence in working with multilingual students. Across each country-level dataset, patterns of excellence emerged as well as opportunities for growth. While there are limited claims we should make regarding national level education or teacher preparation practices, our research does suggest several noteworthy patterns. First, excellence is occurring across our four nations and that highlighting that excellence can provide valuable insight and tools for further growth of quality teaching across all four countries and potentially beyond. Second, while our study focused on individual teachers and their practices inside classrooms rather than the entire school or even national context, as a first study of its kind, this was an important place to start, providing a variety of paths forward for our research team and others. Third, continued explorations that expand the number, length and depth of observations building off of this study are recommended. Fourth, this study also illustrates the value of the observation protocol we used and its ability to be used across four national contexts and to capture excellence. Finally, our research enhances a hitherto limited evidence base for teaching multilingual learners in content classrooms with examples of excellence, showing both the complexity and opportunity we have in our work preparing content teachers to work well with multilingual students in our local national contexts and internationally.
References
Becker-Mrotzek, M., Hentschel, B., Hippmann, K., & Linnemann, M. (2012). Sprachförderung in deutschen Schulen – die Sicht der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer. Ergebnisse einer Umfrage unter Lehrerinnen und Lehrern. Durchgeführt von IPSOS (Hamburg) im Auftrag des Mercator-Instituts für Sprachförderung und Deutsch als Zweitsprache, Universität zu Köln. Lucas, T. (2011). Teacher preparation for linguistically diverse classrooms: A resource for teacher educators. New York, NY: Routledge. Murphy, V., & Unthia, A. (2015). A systematic review of intervention research examining English language and literacy development in children with English as an Additional Language (EAL). Oxford: University of Oxford Department of Education Teemant, A., Leland, C., & Berghoff, B. (2014). Development and validation of a measure of Critical Stance for instructional coaching. Teaching and Teacher Education, 39, 136-147.
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