- Year 2017
- NSF Noyce Award # 1339981
- First Name Serigne
- Last Name Gningue
- Discipline Other: STEM, STEM
- Co-PI(s)
Gillian Bayne, Lehman College, gillian.bayne@lehman.cuny.edu
Sunyata Smith, Lehman College, sunyata.smith@lehman.cuny.edu
Orlando Alonso, Lehman College, orlando.alonso@lehman.cuny.edu
Andrei Jitianu, Lehman College, andrei.jitianu@lehman.cuny.edu - Presenters
Serigne Gningue, Lehman College, serigne.gningue@lehman.cuny.edu
Gillian Bayne, Lehman College, gillian.bayne@lehman.cuny.edu
Sunyata Smith, Lehman College, sunyata.smith@lehman.cuny.edu
Orlando Alonso, Lehman College, orlando.alonso@lehman.cuny.edu
kristina Perrotto, New World High School, kristinaperrotto@gmail.com
Nelson Caro, Lehman College, nelson.caro@lc.cuny.edu
Eric Agyenim-Boateng, Lehman College, agyenimboateng@gmail.com
Need
This project is important because there exists a need to understand and implement critical elements inherent to carefully crafted and enacted pedagogical practices, which are appropriately aligned to meet the teaching and learning needs of ELLs in mainstream urban high-need secondary STEM classrooms. It includes an added special focus on preparing highly qualified science and mathematics teachers to teach ELLs in such settings. We have developed and are implementing a model used to continue the reform efforts of teacher preparation through a semi-residency, innovative school-centered, needs-based 5-year teacher preparation program, that includes an integrated professional development and induction support programs to produce demonstrated positive impacts on teacher competency, and on the mathematics and science achievement of the students in such settings. The results of this project are evidencing critical strategies that are reproducible by the STEM teaching community.
Goals
The overarching goal of STEMELL is to address the issue of teacher competency through undergraduate and graduate-level teacher preparation in mathematics and science education that focuses on the development of Noyce Scholars’ knowledge of content, pedagogy, and language instruction. It provides them with multiple supports, such as internships, mentoring, and school-based clinical experiences to reinforce both conceptual and applied learning. It is our belief that teacher induction that seeks the development of teachers’ content and pedagogical knowledge within a community of practice will result in improved self-efficacy leading to the improvement of learning for ALL students. The strategies and supports designed in this program foster Noyce Scholars’ capacities to form collaborative partnerships with English as a second language (ESL) teachers and secondary level, mainstream STEM subject teachers. Both affect the development of a teacher’s sense of self-efficacy, adequate classroom practices and positive outcomes for ALL students.
Approach
While attitudes towards ELLs and other concerns exist, there is a need to recognize that all ELL students bring with them important familial and cultural resources and capital from both an epistemological and phenomenological perspectives that can serve to strengthen and support both human and material resources requisite for the appropriate teaching and learning of ELLs (Lee 2002; Lee & Fradd; Yosso, 2005) in mathematics and science classrooms. In cognitively based science instruction, every day experiences of students, and the language practices that they bring to the learning process are examined. Through their every day experiences of argumentation and reasoning, students can use these things as intellectual resources in learning. Respecting and activating all students’ prior knowledge understandings are needed in order to foster engagement. Being mindful of perceptions is equally important when working with students who are linguistically and culturally different (Lee, 2002).
Outcomes
Focus groups with Scholars explored the impact of the program coursework on students and their perceived impact on their capacity to teach ELLs in mainstream classrooms. Scholars provided mixed responses, from believing that the coursework provided a strong foundation to feedback on how they could better impact their skills to teach math and science in the context of NYC schools. Survey data supported the focus group findings in looking at the perceived impact of the program coursework and internship on Scholars’ overall preparedness to teach in schools. Scholars believe the internship experience has done the most in preparing them for teaching in schools, as all six respondents provided the highest rating of 8. Scholars felt more confident in meeting the overall needs of ELLs compared to their confidence level in effectively teaching them math or science. They also were highly confident about their familiarity with different models of collaboration.
Broader Impacts
A new mixed model of teacher Preparation has emerged out of this project: A clinically-rich and sustainable teacher residency model that highlights the power of thoughtful and intentional collaboration in serving the needs of ELLs. While the academic language of scholars related to language acquisition, pedagogical content knowledge, literacy on the content and other areas of educational research and theory is still underdeveloped, they managed to identify a group of core strategies they could put into practice in an apprenticeship environment, while maybe leaving aside things they did not quite fully understand. This is interpreted as a justification of the different levels of response to awareness of the teaching tools they are beginning to learn and for a later usage. This study comes at a time when new and innovative strategies are needed to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse society, especially as they relate to those who are involved in teaching mathematics and science.
