03/21/2025
By Zakkiyya Witherspoon

The School of Education invites you to attend a doctoral dissertation defense by Sarah Davis on “An Exploration of How Secondary Science Teachers Approach Instructional Planning for Emergent Multilingual Learners."

Date: Friday, April 4, 2025
Time: 1 p.m.
Location: Remote Zoom link

Committee
Chair: Michelle Scribner, Ed.D., Clinical Associate Professor, Mathematics and Science Education, UMass Lowell
Patricia Fontaine, Ed.D., Clinical Professor, Curriculum and Instruction, UMass Lowell
Linda Riley, Ed.D., School of Education, UMass Lowell

Abstract

As the population of Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) has grown across the United States, so too have the demands on general education content teachers who are expected to meet the needs of newly arrived EMLs in their classrooms. Especially in suburban “new immigrant” settings and especially at the secondary level, few content teachers have the orientations and preparation necessary to effectively integrate content and language instruction. A growing body of research in the preservice sphere has focused on how universities might prepare teacher candidates for this work, but less is known about how to support teacher growth in the inservice realm. Additionally, there is only limited research available that is specific to content areas and to the secondary level. The purpose of this study was to explore how high school science teachers, specifically in biology, view the intersection of content and language in their discipline and how they approach lesson planning for EMLs. The study aimed to illuminate the internal orientations and observable skills of four experienced teachers from schools with varying EML incidence. Data were collected through a survey, a constructed lesson planning task and a semi-structured interview. Overall, findings indicate that secondary science teachers need opportunities to develop specific aspects of teacher language awareness that promote both language learning and content understanding. This study recommends a curriculum-embedded approach to professional learning that focuses on developing a functional understanding of disciplinary language.