| dc.description.abstract | Recent research has developed strong theories on student learning; however, we have less ideas about professional learning of teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine EL-related PD opportunities offered to teachers working with bilingual students. In addition, the study examined whether differences in the sessions by grade level, attendance, session topic, language used for session, and length of PD session. The study also examined how PD differs for teachers of ELs serving elementary grade levels. Identifying the types of EL-related PD teachers received assisted in determining whether there might be a disconnect between the professional development opportunities offered and the needs of teachers who serve ELs.
This study employed quantitative content analysis, which is a research method that employs varied procedures to interpret the text, the message, make inferences about it and classify the information studied into fewer categories. Descriptive statistics including frequencies and chi-square analyses were conducted for answering the research questions. There were 627 sessions offered by this professional development (PD) provider, targeting K-5 general education teachers, with 186 or 29.7% of sessions devoted to EL-related topics. Only 18 (9.7%) sessions mentioned Spanish as a language to be used in the session description or title, but 30.2% of sessions addressed state certification test preparation. Chi-square test showed that almost half the sample of sessions at 87 or 46.8% were presented as benefitting PK-12 educators, and another large percent of 41.9%, or 78 sessions, were specific to PK-5 educators. The number of sessions listed targeted grades that Grade 3 alone (2 session only) or Grades 2-3 (1 session). The chi-square test showed that there was a significant association between session attendance and session topic (χ 2 (253) = 589.454, p < 0.0001). Native language (L1) teaching methods topic was one of the topics with zero attendees registered. Another topic that had zero attendees was bilingual teaching methods topic. The chi-square test showed that there was not a significant association between session attendance and session grade level (χ 2 (88) = 60.164, p = 0.99).
However, for length of the session and attendance, the chi-square was significant with 81.7% of all sessions in the sample awarded as between 1 through 9 hours. The data in the present study showed that there were fewer PD opportunities provided to teachers of ELs compared to sessions covering general education content. The greatest percentage of PD topics covered in the 1-year sample of PD offering concentrated on certification exam preparation. Sessions offered in Spanish were limited and mostly available within sessions covering bilingual teacher exam preparation. One day workshop prevailed as most of the offerings. Chapter 5 concludes the study with implications for practice and recommendations. | |
