Collaborative Online Projects for ELL Students (COPELLS)

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The purpose of this R&D project is to study the feasibility of culturally and linguistically sensitive science instructional materials with middle-school level Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in Oregon. The project is a collaborative effort between the University of Oregon's National Center for Supported Electronic Text and the Center for Advanced Technology in Education (CATE), in partnership with the Latin-American Institute for Educational Communication (ILCE, Spanish acronym) in Mexico; it aims at selecting, translating into English, enhancing, and evaluating the use of ILCE-produced instructional materials. ILCE's materials consist of a series of Collaborative Online Projects (COPs) in Spanish, available through "Red Escolar" with headquarters in Mexico as well. COPs are 5-6-week duration technology-enhanced instructional modules. Generally, they consist of one study unit containing four to five lessons on specific science topics designed to enhance understanding of key science concepts and skills. Modification and development of COPs will be based on a cognitive-affective theory of multimedia learning that founds itself on dual-coding theory, cognitive-load theory, and constructivist learning theory. Enhanced bilingual versions of COPs will be aligned with the Oregon Science Standards and the National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). These COPs will include support resources, such as interactive online reading through e-text, audio and video explanations of fundamental scientific vocabulary, illustrations (e.g., images, videos, games), access to an online bilingual dictionary, text-to-speech software that enables all words to be read out loud, and links between the two language versions. In addition, the project aims at developing accompanying teacher guides to ensure their understanding of the science content and instructional strategies.The project will adopt a designed-based research approach to the redesign, testing, refinement, and evaluation of COPs focused on the interaction between teachers, students, and materials with a functional, evidence-based intervention as one of the outcomes of the process. The main assumption of the proposed scope of work is that adapting quality science materials already in use by Mexican science teachers and students may be an efficient way to develop and deliver culturally relevant materials to the linguistically diverse population of ELLs in Oregon. The project will investigate the following research questions: (1)Do COPs facilitate science content learning, scientific attitudes, and second-language development? (2) What factors influence students' effective use of COPs? (3) Are teachers and students motivated to use the COPs in the future? The research design consists of two stages. The first stage--already completed--is informed exploration through which the research team identified and described the problem and assessed needs, conducted a comprehensive literature review, developed appropriate theoretical constructs, and characterized the audience. The second stage is a three-step enactment process: (a) selection and redesign by which a team of scientists, science educators, Oregon Department of Education content specialists, science multimedia experts, and science teachers will identify three COPs, translate them into English, and post them for in-house testing and refinement; (b) conduct case studies to gather and interpret data from classroom observations, logs of students' questions and comments, assessment of students' scientific knowledge gains, and students' and teachers' satisfaction and engagement; and (c) implement a feasibility study in three Oregon school districts, including eight science teachers, and 160 secondary school Spanish-speaking ELLs (20 students/teacher). Qualitative and statistical data gathering and interpretation strategies will be employed. Project feasibility measures include (a) students' learned science concepts using a single-condition pre-test-posttest design, (b) English and Spanish academic language proficiency growth; and (c) teachers' and students' use of technology in science classrooms, satisfaction, engagement, and attitudes. Major project outcomes consist of three COPs aligned with state and national science standards designed to enhance understanding of the science content and support bilingual literacy acquisition; and research-informed data on the usability of the instructional units. Project evaluation includes both formative and summative components, an external evaluator, an advisory board, and a science review committee. Posting COPs on the CATE's website, journal articles, and presentations at major regional and national conferences are the main dissemination activities.