Professional development for K-12 science teachers in linguistically diverse classrooms

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This project will engage science teachers in a sustained professional development (PD) program embedded in an afterschool science program designed for a linguistically diverse group of English learners (ELs). The project targets science teachers (chemistry, physics, biology, and earth science) who teach in a high school that includes refugees from Myanmar, Central America, and Africa. Roughly 20% of the students are classified as ELs, representing almost 20 different linguistic groups, including a variety of Asian, Spanish, and Arabic languages. The fundamental issue that the project seeks to address is the design of science learning environments to facilitate ELs' learning in linguistically diverse high school classrooms. Research on science education for ELs has recommended several effective teaching approaches, such as building on students' diverse and rich resources, engaging students in authentic science learning practices, and encouraging and valuing flexible use of multiple languages. However, previously most research has focused on teaching speakers of Spanish in elementary and middle school level science classrooms in which a majority of ELs speak the same language. Furthermore, while many PD programs supporting science education for ELs provide a short-term workshop and/or newly designed curriculum and curriculum guide, there is a lack of PD models that engage teachers in a sustained community of practice through collaboration between researchers and teachers. The project's primary goal includes broadening participation with direct impact on 14 science teachers, who will impact over 2000 students, including over 450 ELs, during the project implementation period. The project provides a sustained model of the PD program which further impacts EL students of teachers who participated in the various phases of the project. The project has a potential to make an impact on ELs and high school science teachers of ELs in three different ways. First, by generating PD materials that include effective teaching materials and instructional practices for ELs, which can be used by other educators situated in similar educational contexts. Second, by giving presentations and publish papers that communicate findings of the project to academic communities. These outputs can impact other researchers who would like to design PD programs to foster ELs' science learning. Third, by implementing the developed and tested PD program in a larger scale. The implementation of the project will build capacity to conduct a larger PD project to impact more teachers and students. These anticipated outputs and outcomes will provide valuable resources for researcher and practitioners looking to support ELs' science learning and steps forward to equity. Finally, the project team and two cohorts of science teachers will co-design a school-wide science teacher PD to transform science teaching materials and practices of non-participating teachers.The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.