Author(s):
Need
Approximately 40% of Houston area K-12 students are classified as Emergent Bilinguals (EBs). This percentage is more than double the national average of 17.2 % (NCES, 2019). Teachers of diverse learners need to be properly supported to develop mindsets and lessons that are effective with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. Effective science teachers that are prepared to teach EBs are necessary because the science achievement gap between EBs and their non-EB peers is stark.
This study is situated within a larger study called Elevating Language and Literacy Instruction during the Professional Preparation of Science Educators (ELLIPPSE). ELLIPPSE aims to empower pre-service elementary science teachers to develop contextualized science lessons (Thompson et al., 2013; Tolbert et al., 2019) that integrate language and literacy, and Funds of Knowledge strategies for multilingual classrooms in urban schools to support EB’s development of content knowledge and language simultaneously. This study aims to understand pre-service teachers’ beliefs about science teaching with EBs. Teacher beliefs hold important implications for EBs in their classrooms. Teachers’ beliefs about embedding language literacy in science classrooms influence their perceptions, judgement, and pedagogical choices, which impacts student engagement, interest, behavior, and achievement (Lee et al., 2008; Pettit, 2011). For example, teachers with high expectations of EBs can make school experiences more positive and productive, whereas those with unexamined deficit views about EBs may be biased and implement less effective instruction without recognizing it (Peregoy & Boyle, 2013).
Guiding Question
Does engagement in the ELLIPPSE project impact pre-service teachers’ beliefs about science teaching with Emergent Bilinguals?
Outcomes
To understand any changes to participant beliefs, we administered the Teacher Beliefs and Attitudes Survey (Huerta et al., 2019). Cohort 1 (n=22) students completed the pre-survey in August 2022 and post-survey in May 2023. We analyzed pre-post differences regarding attitudes and beliefs about language diversity and teaching science for emergent bilingual students. Five factors were measured in the 26-item five-point scale (Huerta et al., 2019), and they are beliefs about:
(1) language value in home country, (2) external support for ELs, (3) ELs and learning, (4) allowing ELs to use native language during science instruction, and (5) integrating language and culture into science education.
Pre-post survey results showed positive changes with Factors 2 (beliefs about external support for ELs), 3 (beliefs about ELs and their learning), and 4 (beliefs about allowing ELs to use native language during science instruction). Despite statistical non-significance partly due to a small sample size, the results suggest that the pre-service elementary students will advocate for more support for ELs, develop more asset-views of ELs, and present more positive attitudes about the use of their students’ home language in science instruction found in post-survey compared to the pre-survey.
Broader Impacts
Understanding how pre-service teachers’ beliefs about science teaching with EBs is important because beliefs impact a teachers’ lesson planning and instructional choices. It is critical that teachers hold asset-based beliefs when lends to strategies and learning opportunities that help all students learn science and language, especially EBs.
Coauthors
Jie Zhang, University of Houston; Zhenjie Hou, University of Houston, Laveria Hutchison, University of Houston
