This study is part of a 5-year research project designed to simultaneously
promote urban elementary school teachers’ knowledge of science content, practices
in teaching science, and practices for supporting English language development of
ELL students in a large urban school district. As initial efforts to design effective
professional development interventions, this study presents descriptive results about
urban elementary school teachers’ perceptions with regard to (1) their own
knowledge of science content and their practices in teaching science and English
language development of ELL students and (2) organizational supports and barriers
to teaching science for student diversity.
This study contributes to the existing literature by examining how urban
elementary teachers perceive challenges at both the school and classroom levels in
teaching science and English language development to nonmainstream students,
especially ELL students. The results establish a baseline for our own interventions
using a longitudinal design and help others consider the role of teacher perceptions
in their efforts to develop professional development interventions in elementary
science instruction with diverse student groups.
Method
Research Setting