Worldwide, pupils with migrant backgrounds do not participate in school STEM subjects as successfully as their peers. Migrant pupils’ subject-specific language proficiency lags behind, which hinders participation and learning. Primary teachers experience difficulty in teaching STEM as well as promoting required language development. This study investigates how a professional development program (PDP) focusing on inclusive STEM teaching can promote teacher learning of language-promoting strategies (promoting interaction, scaffolding language and using multilingual resources). Participants were five case study teachers in multilingual schools in the Netherlands (N = 2), Sweden (N = 1) and Norway (N = 2), who taught in primary classrooms with migrant pupils. The PDP focused on three STEM units (sound, maintenance, plant growth) and language-promoting strategies. To trace teachers’ learning, three interviews were conducted with each of the five teachers (one after each unit). The teachers also filled in digital logs (one after each unit). The interviews showed positive changes in teachers’ awareness, beliefs and attitudes towards language-supporting strategies. However, changes in practice and intentions for practice were reported to a lesser extent. This study shows that a PDP can be an effective starting point for teacher learning regarding inclusive STEM teaching. It also illuminates possible enablers (e.g., fostering language awareness) or hinderers (e.g., teachers’ limited STEM knowledge) to be considered in future PDP design.
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12/31/2022The purpose of the design-based research reported here is to show – as a proof of principle – how the idea of scaffolding can be used to support primary teachers in a professional development programme (PDP) to design and enact language-oriented science lessons. The PDP consisted of six sessions of 2.5 h each in which twelve primary school teachers took part over a period of six months. It centralised the language support that pupils need to reason during science lessons. In line with the idea of scaffolding, the structure of the PDP targeted teachers' gradual independence in designing lessons. The first research question is how scaffolding was enacted during the PDP. The analysis of video recordings, field notes, researcher and teacher logs, and teacher design assignments focused on the enactment of three scaffolding characteristics: diagnosis, responsiveness and handover to independence. The second research question concerns what teachers learned from the participation in the PDP that followed a scaffolding approach. The data analysis illustrates that these teachers had learned much in terms of designing and enacting language-oriented science lessons. In terms of diagnosis and responsiveness, our PDP approach was successful, but we problematise the ideal of scaffolding approaches focused on handover to independence.
Research into how and why language teachers use literature as content is presented to explore one aspect of various pedagogical and collaborative practices open to language teachers in CLIL contexts. Language teachers’ beliefs and practices are examined based on a literature review, focus group study, survey, and multiple-case study.The question how and why language teachers shape practices using literature as content is considered, drawing on research into the pedagogical and collaborative practices of language teachers in CLIL contexts. The presentation brings together findings from a literature review, focus group study, survey, and multiple-case study to exemplify and explain the practices of language teachers in CLIL who turn to literature as their content. A dynamic framework for locating and explicating the pedagogical and collaborative practices of language teachers in CLIL contexts (Dale, Oostdam, & Verspoor, 2017) derived from a literature review is presented. The views of different stakeholders in CLIL in the Netherlands in relation to the teaching of literature, based on a focus group study are discussed (Dale, Oostdam, & Verspoor, 2018a). The findings of a survey into the stated beliefs and practices of Teachers of English in Bilingual Streams (TEBs) in the Netherlands with regard to the teaching of literature (Dale, Oostdam, & Verspoor, 2018b) are presented. Two case descriptions representing prototypical practices of language teachers taking literature as content are introduced (Dale, Oostdam, & Verspoor, submitted). ]
