RSA #2: Teacher
Professional Development to Improve Science and Literacy Achievement of English
Language Learners
The Type of Teacher
Professional Development is the Best to Influence Student Achievement
The article “Teaching Teachers: Professional Development to
Improve Student Achievement,” examines which type of professional development
helps improve teacher’s instructional practice and, therefore, increase student
learning. It begins by traveling through
time in the 1960’s and 1990’s and discusses how professional development has
progressed. It concludes that
professional development (PD) needs to be in the curricular area that the
educators teach and apply to the real-classroom setting, using curriculum standards
and its materials such as assessments or tools.
It should give the teacher’s insight about how the students acquire that
subject area knowledge. Additionally,
American Educational Research Association found that “professional development
is likely to be more effective if it is sustained over time and involves a
significant number of hours” (3).
Lastly, the article details four steps on how administration
should structure the professional learning opportunities for their teachers to
ensure its success. These steps
include: assuring that PD aligns with
the subject matter the teacher teaches, allowing for the PD to align with
teacher’s curriculum and evaluation pieces, allocating adequate time for PD and
that it is supporting students’ knowledge of the subject matter, and having
evaluating systems in place to measure the effectiveness of the PD on teachers’
practice and student achievement (American Educational Research Association,
2005).
The Need for Professional Development
The article, “Teacher Professional Development to Improve
Science and Literacy Achievement of English Language Learners” directly begins
by providing statistics for the increasing number of United States school-aged
children who are categorized English language learners (ELLs). Subsequently,
more academic rigor is being added to the education of all students, including
ELLs, which is adding to a great “achievement gaps across all content areas”
(Lee & Buxton, 2013). It was found
that most teachers did not feel sufficiently trained to meet the needs of their
students in their subject matters.
Lee and Buxton focus the next portion of the article in the core
area of science. They detail three key
areas of effective practices in science instruction. They next share how successful teachers use
the five domains of language development to further support their teaching of
ELL students in science.
Lastly, valuable teacher professional development needs to
be broken down into the following features:
content focus, active learning and coherence. Additionally, PD must have sufficient duration
for the teacher and students. Plus, it
should have an element of collective participation and collaboration among all
stakeholders.
Together
Both articles express the necessity for
professional development for teaching professionals to enhance student
learning. The authors of the two
articles examine the essentials of effective PD. They concur that it needs to in the teacher’s
content area with their current curriculum and materials. However, the second piece from Lee and
Buxton, delves deeper into the foundations of valuable PD such the
collaboration aspect that could take place during a professional learning
community. Also, professional
development can work better when teachers have the time to implement new instructional
strategies and that the students have multiple years to learn them.
References
American
Educational Research Association. (2005). Teaching teachers: professional
development to improve student achievement. Research Points, 3(1),
1-4.
Lee, O., &
Buxton, C.A. (2013). Teacher professional development to improve science and literacy
achievement of English language learners.
Theory Into Practice, 52(2),
110-117.
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