English Learners in STEM Subjects Transforming Classrooms, Schools, and Lives (2018) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction
1 Introduction
Pages 9-26
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Opening avenues to success in STEM for the nation's ELs offers a path to improved earning potential, income security, and economic opportunity for these students and their families. At least as important, increasing the diversity of the STEM workforce confers benefits to society as a whole, not simply due to the improved economic circumstances for a substantial segment of society, but also because diversity 9
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suggests that the language to be learned needs to focus on the important STEM content and what is known about how children learn STEM content. As content standards are continuously evolving, English language proficiency (ELP)
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Current understanding of the co-development of language and content necessitates that educators of STEM content are familiar with the nature of language, language learning, and exemplary STEM instruction that includes attention to language. To achieve this objective, educators of STEM content must learn to interrogate their preconceived notions and tacit assumptions about language, starting with the most fundamental, though rarely discussed, question, "What is language?
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This idea was further supported by the work of Cummins (1981) ; in particular, he made a distinction between informal conversational language and more formal academic language in his research on children developing bilingual competence at school.
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. Science Learning with English Learners The general direction of early research on science learning with ELs did not attend to the practical need for all students to meet the full range of science standards or abilities while also developing English proficiency.
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. CHARGE TO THE COMMITTEE The Board on Science Education of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, in collaboration with the Board on Children, Youth, and Families, convened an expert committee to synthesize the existing evidence base on supporting EL students in STEM subjects from PreK–12 and provide guidance on how to improve learning outcomes in STEM for these students (see Box 1-1)
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and give particular attention o to students who have limited English skills (often referred to as English language learners) and who may have been formally identified as such by the school or district.
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This report examined the evidence based on research relevant to the development of dual language learners/ELs birth to age 21 that could inform policies and practices that could lead to better educational outcomes. The release of the Promising Futures report was timely for the committee, as there was pre dictable overlap in the literatures reviewed by the two committees to address their respective charges.
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. The committee searched for information on ELs' learning outcomes associated with different policies at the state and district levels, program models, instructional strategies employed across the various STEM content areas, and the professional development of teachers.
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Additional presentations looked at state and district policies and the implementation of equitable educational opportunities, such as immigration trends and educational impacts, funding patterns associated with federal accountability, and a district-level perspective on ways to build capacity for teachers to provide rigorous science learning opportunities to their students, including ELs. Also during the second meeting, the committee considered issues centered on technology, computational thinking, and digital media through presentations that discussed technology-based programs designed to improve learning outcomes and broaden participation among ELs while also addressing the limited evidence base on technology and ELs.
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The committee was also careful to qualify and temper the conclusions and subsequent recommendations that could be made based on the type of evidence and its strength. Defining English Learner Populations and Contexts As part of the deliberation process, the committee acknowledged that many other terms exist to characterize the population, for example, dual language learners, multi-language learners, and emergent bilinguals (see National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2017)
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The committee views newcomers as students who can interact with children who speak English and can participate and contribute within authentic STEM learning contexts. Given this, the discussion and recommendations throughout the report apply to all ELs, including newcomers, acknowledging that the opportunities for language development need to be calibrated to their newcomer status.
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AN ASSET-ORIENTED VIEW OF ENGLISH LEARNERS This report presents substantial evidence that with appropriate curricular and instructional support, ELs can participate, contribute, and succeed in STEM classrooms. ELs bring multicompetence to the STEM classroom, with broader aspects of language knowledge and cultural knowledge than monolingual ("monocompetent")
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Chapter 2 describes the heterogeneity among ELs and their educational experiences through different program models that affect ELs' access to STEM courses. Chapter 3 extends this discussion by articulating the inextricable relationship between language development and STEM learning, describes the vision for STEM classrooms, and discusses the important role of content area standards in education as they relate to this study.
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, Common Core State Standards in Mathematics for English Language Learners: High School (pp.
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. Transformational opportunities: Language and literacy instruction for English language learners in the common core era in the United States.
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. The long-term impact of subtractive schooling in the educational experiences of secondary English language learners.
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Bunch (Authors) , Secondary Science Teaching for English Learners: Developing Supportive and Responsive Learning Contexts for Sense-Making and Language Development (pp.
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