DOCUMENT RESUME ED 365 166 FL 021 800 AUTHOR Clair, Nancy TITLE Beliefs, Self-Reported Practices and Professional Development Needs of Three Classroom Teachers with ranguage-Minority Students. PUB DATE Feb 93 NOTE 263p.; Ed.D. Dissertation, Teacher's College, Columbia University. PUB TYPE Dissertations/Theses Doctoral Dissertations (041) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC11 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Beliefs; Case Studies; Classroom Techniques; Educational Needs; Elementary School Students; Elementary Secondary Education; *English (Second Language); Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 10; *Language Attitudes; Language Proficiency; *Limited English Speaking; Mainstreaming; Secondary School. Students; *Teacher Attitudes; Te&cher Characteristics; Teacher Education; *Teacher Expectations of Students; *Teacher Student Relationship IDENTIFIERS *Language Minorities ABSTRACT This study explored beliefs, self-reported practices, and professional development needs of three mainstream classroom teachers with language-minority students. Case histories of the teachers were composed from transcripts of interviews, classroom observation, and entries from teacher and observer journals. Analysis reveals that:(1) teacher beliefs about language-minority students may be based on hearsay and miE .formation;(2) the teachers do not vary their planning but frequently vary lesson implementation; (3) choice of instructional practices may be based on naive notions of language proficiency and the demands of the mainstream classroom; and (4) teachers draw on intuitive wisdom because of lack of preservice teacher preparation and nonexistent or inadequate inservice education on issues related to language-minority students. Implications are drawn primarily for preservice and inservice teacher education: teacher educators must embrace a conception of schooling that considers the social, political, and cultural realities of a diverse student population when creating innovative curricula; inservice staff development regarding language-minority student issues should be context-specific, driven by the needs and commitments of teachers and the resources of school and community; teachers have a responsibility for engaging in dialogue with teachers, parents, and administrators about these issues; and more research is needed. (Author/MSE) *k********************************************************************* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** .0 BELIEFS, SELF-REPORTED PRACTICES AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CZ NEEDS OF THREE CLASSROOM TEACHERS WITH LANGUAGE-MINORITY STUDENTS b y Nancy Clair DissertationCommittee: Professor Karen Kepler Zumwalt, Sponsor Professor Leslie Beebe Approved by the Committee on the Degree of the Doctor of Education Date Submittedinpartialfulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Teachers College, Columbia University 1993 U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION (dta e 4,1 t- du, alronal Research and Irnprovement E OUCATIONAL 1=0 SOURCES INFORMATION -PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS CENTER RIC) MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY iyd(his dor omen? NISbeen reproduced as received from the person or organization nrvnafinq if C(..1-sr" ' Minor changes hare been made In improve repindur lion quality Pomts of view or opinions slated in Ihrsdocu men? do nol neceSsahly represent official Of Pi position or pohcy TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)" BEST COPY AVAILABLE ABSTRACT BELIEFS, SF1 F-REPORTED PRACTICES AND PROFESSIONALDEVELOPMENT NEEDS OF THREE CLASSROOM TEACHERS WITHLANGUAGE-MINORITY STUDENTS Nancy Clair An increasing number of language-minority students spendonly a portion of their day in the English as a Second Language(ESL) or bilingual classroom because of social, political, pedagogical and economicfactors. The rest of their day is spent in the regular classroom, yetclassroom teachers are generally not prepared tointegrate these students (Wong-Fillmore and Meyer, 1992; Scarce Ila, I99C; Penfield, 1987). This qualitative study explores the beliefs,self-reportedpractices and professional development needs of three classroom teachers (grades 4,5 and 10) with language-minority students. Case histories of the teachers were composed from transcripts ofin- depth interviews, notes from classroom observations andentries from teachers' and researcher journals. The analysis reveals that:(a) the teachers' beliefs towards language-minority students may be based onhearsay and misinformation;(b)the teachers do not varytheir planning,butfrequently vary lesson implementation; (c)selection of instructionalpractices may be based on naive notions of language proficiency and thedemands of the mainstream classroom; (d)the teachers draw on intuitive wisdom because of a lack of preservice teacher preparationand nonexistent orineffective inservicestaff development regardingissuesrelatedtolanguage-minority students. The implications,targetedtoteacher educators,staff developers, teachers andadministrators, focus on preservice and inserviceteacher preparation, becauseitisthrough education that beliefs andinstructional practices may be treated.First, teacher educators need to embrace a more criticalconception of schooling which considersthesocial,politicaland culturalrealitiesof a diverse student population, when creatinginnovative preservice curriculardesigns. Second,inservicestaff development regarding language-minority studentissuesshould be context-specific;driven by the needs and commitments of the teachers and the resources of theschool and community. Third, teachers have implicit responsibilitiesto engage in dialogue, raise issues and collaborate with other teachers, parents and administratorsabout the education of language-minority students. Finally, more research focusing on teacher beliefsand behavior,innovative preservice teacher education andinservicestaff development modelsis needed. 2 @ CopyrightNancy Clair1993 All Rights Reserved - 5 3 1 To my mother and father with love,respect and admiration an d To my dear aunt Sue whose warmth, grace,friendship and love areeternal 4 Acknowledgments There are many people who provided invaluable support during the "dissertation years."First,I am indebted to my sponsor, Prof. Karen Kepler Zumwalt, for her guidance and support.Prof. Zumwalt's depth of understanding of teachers, schools and educational research was essentialto the study.I am equally indebted to my other committee member, Prof. Leslie Beebe, whose probes into aspects of second language acquisition aided the analysis. Pref. Zumwalt and Prof. Beebe's individual expertise combined well. They were challenging to work with. I am gratefulto my dissertation group: Michele Reich, Sabrina King and Jennifer Robinson. Without theirfriendship,intellectualand emotional support and availability,Iwould probablystillbe writing the proposal. This study could not have been realized if it were not for the three teacher informants. They were generous withtheir time and honest intheir responses. I want to thank Larry Callahan for his ever-patient responses to my numerous computer questions. Moreover,I am gratefulto Classic Restorations, Inc.fortheir computer support. Igive thanks toall my friendsfortheir understanding, especially since there were many times when my dissertation came first. Finally, Icannot find the words to express my feelings for my family.Thank you Mom, Dad, Ellen, Frank, Katie and Michael for your patience and love. 5 Table of Contents Copyright 2 Dedic ation 3 Acknowledgments 4 Table of Contents 5 Chapter IIntroduction 8 Background 9 Rationale 11 Assumptions 11 Significance 13 Chapter II Review of the Literature 15 ProgramsandAlternativesforLanguage-Minority Students 16 Submersion 17 English as a Second Language (ESL) 22 Content-based ESL 23 Bilingual 25 Bilingual immersion 27 Bilingual two-way 28 Summary 29 Teacher Beliefs 30 Summary 35 Teacher Expectations 36 Teacher Expectations and Linguistic Variation 37 Teacher Expectations and Cultural Diversity 40 Summary 43 Teacher Efficacy 44 Summary 47 Mainstreaming Research 48 Summary 52 Related Research 53 Summary 55 Chapter III Method 56 Research Design 56 Participant Selection 57 Data Collection 59 Pilot Study 59 Interviews, Observations and Journals 62 Transcription Process 63 Writing the Case Histories 63 Validity and Reliability 63 Analysis of the Cases 65 Limitations of the Study 66 6 Chapter IV Narrative Case Studies 68 Anita 68 Current Teaching Context 70 Language-Minority Students 79 Luz 79 Rose 85 Self-Reported Instructional Practices 92 Professional Development and Support 96 Joshua 101 Current Teaching Context 104 Language-Minority Students 108 Self-Reported Instructional Practices 116 Professional Development and Support 122 Laura 127 Current Teaching Context 131 Language-Minority Students 138 Ting-Ting 138 Fan 140 Chung-Hua 142 Jia-Ming 143 Self-Reporteci Instructional Practices 148 Professional Development and Support 153 Chapter V Cross-Case Analysis and Discussion 157 Personal and Professional Background 157 Current Teaching Context 159 Time Constraints 162 Curricular and Content Restrictions 163 School Environment and Support 164 Anita: Conflict and Tension 166 Joshua: Personal Experience and Self-Reliance 167 Laura: The Induction Year 168 Summary 169 Beliefs 169 Language-Minority Students 170 Knowledge of language-minority students 170 Beliefs about academic and social success 172 Beliefs about culture 176 Language-minority students' relation with peers 178 Teacher