Abstract:

This presentation will briefly describe the five components of the Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Pedagogical Content Knowledge (CLD-PCK) Model, the research upon which it is based, the instruments that were developed to evaluate its effectiveness, and the empirical results of the model, documenting its effectiveness for the preparation of new teachers.

The CLD-PCK Model (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Pedagogical Content Knowledge) is a U.S. Department of Education grant-funded teacher education reform model that has five components that research indicates must be in place to improve the math and science learning of immigrant and refugee students learning English as a new language. These five components are culture, academic language in mathematics and science, mathematics and science content, instructional strategies to teach mathematics and science, and math and science after-school work with families (Bunch, 2013; Cochran- Smith & Villegas, 2015; Coyle, 2015; Faltis & Valdés, 2015; Heritage, Walqui & Linquanti, 2015; Lee, Quinn, & Valdés, 2013; Llinares & Morton, 2017; Llinares, Morton & Whittaker, 2012; Zwiers, O'Hara & Pritchard, 2014). Our model is different from previous models proposed such as the PCK Content Model (Shulman, 1987) or the Pedagogical Language Knowledge Model (Bunch, 2013) in that the CLD-PCK Model attempts to integrate components from content, pedagogy, culture and academic language, much like the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) Model (Llinares & Morton, 2017) used in Spain and Europe. The CLD-PCK Model was implemented and researched in a U.S. university program for teacher candidates seeking a dual endorsement in both TESOL and Elementary Education.

Six new instruments were piloted to study the development of 22 pre-service teacher candidates over a three-year period (2012- 2015). All teacher candidates were in classrooms in schools with immigrant and refugee students (i.e. 1000 English learners in four project elementary schools) learning mathematics and science in English. The PCK Observation Tool with 42 criteria organized into seven domains was used to code five teaching videos per participant. Mathematics and Science Content Tests and Self-Efficacy Surveys, assessing changes in participant content knowledge and attitudes about teaching mathematics and science to English learners, were administered twice during the project. Finally, the Language and Cultural Construct, assessing both culture and academic language attitudes as well as academic language teaching ability, was administered twice. Parents of English learners also completed evaluations of 24 after-school math and science programs.

Results indicated that teacher candidates improved significantly in their ability to teach mathematics, science and academic language to immigrant and refugee students as measured by both holistic ratings and ratings of individual items on the PCK Observation Tool and the Language and Cultural Construct. Teacher candidates also improved in their math and science content knowledge, but the results were not significant. Parents rated the after-school programs very positively on surveys completed after each event.

Keywords:

Teacher Training, Pedagogical Methods, Language Learning, Immigrants, Refugees.