Introduction

This study sought to understand if Early Childhood teacher education programs in universities have the power to transform the practice of mentor teachers.  

Aims/ Outcomes

Often professors in the area of early childhood are on the cutting edge of the field due to their research agendas and continual examination of the body of research. Since not all mentors can go back to university, this study investigated the possibility that knowledge gained by university students can be passed on to mentors.

This presentation will share how pre-service teachers used technology effectively and appropriately with Pre-K and Kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds) Dual Language Learners (children learning english as a second language)  students to develop oral language and critical thinking skills.  The interns were placed in Professional Development Schools that had been in partnership with the university over several years. A strong partnership of respect and trust between the university and school administrators and teachers was developed over those years. Most of the mentor teachers were excellent teachers and models for their pre-service teachers. In recent years one school in particular had sudden grow in their Dual Language Learner (DLL) population.  

1. A understanding of early childhood teacher preparation programs 

2. A conceptual understanding of how STEM standards of practice can be made to be developmentally appropriate for young children and be optimal tool for developing emergent literacy skills for native speakers of English as well a those learning English as a second language.

3. Specific examples of how pre-service teachers used STEM integrated literacy lessons with all students in Pre-K and Kindergarten classrooms  (4-6 year olds) and how they assisted Mentor teachers to replicate replicated these concepts.

This transfer of knowledge was made possible by the trusting partnership was developed over time.

In this case, pre-service teachers showed mentor teachers how to plan STEM lessons which developed early literacy skills for all young children: native speakers of English as well as those learning to speak English as a second language. 

The mentors they were placed with were selected by the principal to be mentors because they were successful teachers.  However, the mentors had limited experience with and/or course work related to DLLs.  As a result there were times when instruction was not as appropriate as it could have been for DLLs. Through regular course assignments pre-service teachers planned and delivered whole class lessons on STEM topics including technology which also included differentiation for DLL students.  

Using ethnographic methods (Corbin & Strauss, 2008; Strauss & Corbin, 1998), this retrospective-reflective descriptive case study triangulated multiple sources of data resulting in a richer description (Creswell, 2013; Miles, Huberman & Saldaña, 2014, Yin, 2014) Data sources included field notes, interviews of university students and their mentors and student lesson plans and reflections. In addition, the case study methodology described by Merriam (2009) was employed to create descriptive accounts of the planning, context, and episodes of professional development as “phenomenon…occurring in a bounded context” (Miles & Huberman, 1994, p. 25). The bounded context was one university semester of 16 weeks. Multiple methods that are common in qualitative research as we advanced our inquiry (Borman, Clarke, Cotner, & Lee, 2006). For example, through open coding overarching themes emerged (Patton, 2003; Ryan, 2011; Stake, 2003) and helped us to understand how the experiences affected the participating university students and mentor teachers. (Merriam, 2009).

It was illuminated that university students can serve as conduits to professional development for their mentor teachers. Most of the mentors reported they never had course work on second language acquisition theory or knew how to integrate STEM with literacy lessons. The students learning was the result of the mentor teachers working with the university students while previewing, critiquing, debriefing lessons. Participants will gain an understanding of teacher preparation programs in generalizable contexts and of integrated STEM/literacy lessons for young children.

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