- Year 2016
- NSF Noyce Award # 1339981
- First Name Serigne
- Last Name Gningue
- Discipline Mathematics, Science
- Co-PI(s)
Andrei Jitianu, Lehman College/CUNY, Andrei.Jitianu@lehman.cuny.edu
Gillian Bayne, Lehman College/CUNY, gillian.bayne@lehman.cuny.edu
Sunyata Smith, Lehman College/CUNY, sunyata.smith@lehman.cuny.edu
Orlando Alonso, Lehman College/CUNY, orlando.alonso@lehman.cuny.edu - Presenters
Serigne Gningue, Lehman College/CUNY
Gillian Bayne, Lehman College/CUNY, gillian.bayne@lehman.cuny.edu
Sunyata Smith, Lehman College/CUNY, sunyata.smith@lehman.cuny.edu
Orlando Alonso, Lehman College/CUNY, orlando.alonso@lehman.cuny.edu
Hassan Tmimi, New World High School, Bronx, NY, htmimi@schools.nyc.gov
Need
In its response to the local and national contexts of need and urgency to recruit, retain and prepare minority Hispanic and African American STEM undergraduate students to strengthen the pipeline that leads to graduate study in mathematics or science education, Lehman College, through the Department of MHSE, proposed and received funding from NSF for an innovative program, the Lehman College Science Technology Engineering Mathematics for English Language learners (STEMELL). The five-year program provides an opportunity of a lifetime for qualified, energetic college undergraduates, who have a passion for pursuing a professional career in teaching mathematics or sciences in mainstream high-need middle and high school schools. Over a five-year period, the STEMELL Program will admit three cohorts of 8 prospective secondary school mathematics and science teachers each, a total of 24 teachers who will progress each through a three-year program: 2014-17; 2015-18; 2016-19. Students will be recruited from Lehman College’s undergraduate population of mathematics or science majors.
Goals
To prepare the STEMELL pre-service Noyce teachers to meet the challenges of urban teaching in high-need schools, each cohort progress through a 5th year BA/MA teacher preparation program beginning in the junior year as scholars enter the BA/MA sequence leading to: a BA degree in mathematics or science (STEMELL Year 2), NYS Initial Certification to teach mathematics or science in grades 7-12 (STEMELL Year 2), and a Master’s degree in mathematics or science of Education (STEMELL Year 3). The program also offers additional advanced courses required for an extension in TESOL or bilingual education along with internships during the first two years, collaboration with middle and high school mathematics, science and TESOL teachers for the first two years, and full mentoring in the third year during Noyce Scholars first year of teaching in NYC public schools.
The STEMELL 5 Year BA/MA Program will admit three cohorts of 8 prospective secondary school mathematics and science teachers, a total of 24 teachers who will progress each through a three-year program: 2014-17; 2015-18; 2016-19. Noyce Scholars begin the STEMELL program in their junior year of undergraduate study. They are required to take and earn 24 required shared (undergraduate/graduate) credits in Years 1 and 2 including student teaching. They also have an internship under the supervision of a team of school and college mentors with a primary focus on ELL students. In Year 3, Noyce Scholars complete the required graduate coursework for MS degree in mathematics or science education, which includes a supervised internship/mentoring for two semesters while teaching fulltime as employees of the city’s public schools.
Approach
The program is designed to have Noyce Scholars experience four levels of supervised internship during which they have opportunities to observe and understand the needs of ELLs in classrooms at partner schools. To accomplish this goal, we partnered with a 100% school for newcomers, one of our Professional Development Sites (PDS), in Year I (Fall 2014 and Spring 2015) and a regular 6-12 public high school, another PDS, in Year II (Fall 2015 and Spring 2016). The results we are describing here are from their Year I experiences, for Level I and level II Internships.
The STEMELL Program is also investigating how multi-leveled clinical experiences that Noyce Scholars receive as they work with English language learners (ELLs) will impact their beliefs and attitudes towards ELLs, their ability in developing English language proficiency as well as learning mathematics and science to improve outcomes of ALL students in grades 7-12.
Outcomes
According to the mentors, the Scholars have grown and developed perspective on the needs of ELLs in mainstream classrooms. They reported that the Scholars have developed a “passion and connection [for ELLs] that has become very strong.” Focus group data continue to reveal positive trends in the Scholars’ belief that they could meet the needs of ELLs given the training received.
Scholar reflections provided some insight into the knowledge and skills they were acquiring throughout the school year, aligning with many of the positive beliefs about their experience in the program noted in the summaries below. Many of these skills were reflected in their writing, as notes regarding strategies they took away from observing certified teachers teach.
Out of 74 reflections, scholars identified 34 different strategies used by their mentors to teach ELLs for a total 142 times in fall 2014. Activating Prior Knowledge (APK, 12 times), Use of Native Language (UNL, 10 times) and Student Presentations (SP, 8 times) received the highest number of citations. Using a classification of ‘advanced’ (more than 30 observations) “average” (between 15 & 30) or “below average” (below 15 observations), we consider two Noyce scholars were quite advanced in recognizing and naming the strategies used (35 and 31 times), while two were average and three below average.
Broader Impacts
This project is significant because its findings will enhance understanding of a collaborative way of preparing new teachers in science and mathematics for inner-city middle and high schools with high proficiency in teaching challenging subjects to ELLs, and potentially have a transformative effect on teacher education at the national level since STEM and ELL issues are individually at the forefront of the public discourse. 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 the teaching of mathematics and science to English language learners. It is imperative that these strategies be used to address the teaching and learning needs of Ells, as there is a global need for competence, enthusiasm and innovation in STEM classrooms, and in STEM and STEM related careers. This study can serve as a model that can impact secondary classrooms, science and math education undergraduate and graduate courses, and our society at large – all as a means to address the ever-increasing demands of a society that is dependent on every aspect of STEM.
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.
Content-based Instruction (CBI) is recognized by the TESOL international professional organization as the paradigm for language instruction in the classroom; however, ESL teachers are not the only responsible to accomplish such a colossal endeavor within the boundaries of the ESL classroom, but content teachers are called to complement such instruction from the mainstream classroom as they become more familiar with the implementation of strategies within CBI and other approaches to language and content learning like bilingual education, sheltered instruction, and teacher collaboration.
In addition to continuing to share the understandings of observed and used strategies during this period, new strategies and techniques within the knowledge of learning theories and approaches to teach ELLs need to be learned and refined by scholars as they transit the coursework and fieldwork hours ahead during the scope of the program.
