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SMARTER SCHOOLS NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS IMPROVING LITERACY AND NUMERACY NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP Victoria Submissions to National Evidence Base

English as an Additional Language (EAL) Science · Web viewThe EAL Science Language and Literacy Pilot Project aimed to provide secondary science teachers of EAL students, particularly

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SMARTER SCHOOLS NATIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

IMPROVING LITERACY AND NUMERACY NATIONAL PARTNERSHIP

Victoria

Submissions to National Evidence Base

Registration details

*First name: Jenny

*Last name: Schenk

*Email: [email protected]

Confirm email: [email protected]

School/Organisation:Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development

Role/Job title: Manager

Postal address: PO Box 4367

State: VIC

Postcode: 3001

*Phone: 9637 2000

Mobile: N/A

Fax: 9637 2040

IMPORTANT NOTE: All fields or questions marked with an asterisk (*) must be completed or the strategy cannot be submitted for assessment.

Background information

*Submission Title

English as an Additional Language (EAL) Science Language Literacy Pilot Project

*DescriptionPlease provide 2-3 sentences which capture the essence of your literacy/numeracy initiative.

The EAL Science Language and Literacy Pilot Project aimed to provide secondary science teachers of EAL students, particularly those from a disrupted schooling background, with an understanding of how to teach the aspects of English through which scientific knowledge is transmitted. It used a functional systemic approach to showing teachers how the language of science works. A Genre Teaching and Learning Cycle model to drive the application of this language theory to assist teachers to explicitly plan teaching activities that progress students' learning along a 'mode continuum' so that they are able to indepeendently engage with and produce science texts. *State associated with the initiative.

(place X against corresponding state)Australian Capital Territory

New South Wales

Northern Territory

Queensland

South Australia

Tasmania

Victoria

Western Australia

Secondary contact details:

*First name: Calore

*Last name: Anita

School/Organisation name: DEECD

Role/Job title: Senior Project Officer

*Email: [email protected]

*Phone: 9637 2000

Associated organisation

Organisation Type (place X against corresponding groups)

School

Organisation

Organisation name

Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (DEECD)

Organisation contact details

*Email: N/A

*Postal address: PO Box 4367

*State: Victoria

*Postcode: 3001

*Phone: N/A

CEO contact details

*Name: N/A

*Email:      

Mobile:      

Related publicationsAssociated publication, strategy or commercial product details.

Is there a particular publication, strategy or commercial product associated with, identified or cited as central to the initiative in this submission?

Yes

No

If yes, please provide details.

Name or title of the publication or product: N/AThe owner’s name:      The owner’s phone:      The owner’s email:      The owner’s address:      Website details:      

Description of initiative

1. * Is this initiative aimed at school-aged children? (place X against corresponding groups)

Yes

No

2. * Which skill(s) does the initiative target? (place X against corresponding skill)

Literacy

Numeracy

Literacy and Numeracy

Other (please specify) Science literacy

3. * Indicate the target group for the project or initiative.You may tick more than 1 option. (place X against corresponding groups)

Primary school students

Secondary school students

Special school students

Teachers of primary school students

Teachers of secondary school students

Teachers of special school students

Teacher educators

Principals of primary school students

Principals of secondary school students

Principals of special school students

Parents and caregivers of primary school students

Parents and caregivers of secondary school students

Parents and caregivers of special school students

Cluster of schools

4. * What was the size of the target group?

Please indicate how many students, teachers or principals this initiative was delivered to.(Max 3,500 characters)

Four teachers from each of 3 targeted schools, comprising 3 science teachers and one EAL teacher. Several other teachers were involved at the later stages of the project, as planning and training were being put in place for the coming school year.

5. * What year levels did the initiative target?

If the initiative targeted teachers or principals, indicate the year levels that best apply.(place X against corresponding groups)

Prep/Kindergarten/foundation

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

Year 10

Year 11

Year 12

6.

Description of initiative (continued)

7. * Which student groups did the initiative target?

If the initiative targeted teachers or principals, indicate the year levels that best apply.(place X against corresponding groups)

Indigenous students

ESL students

Low SES students

Students with a disability

Students at or below the National Minimum Standard

Gifted and talented students

OtherEAL/ESL students, little or no literacy in their first language, usually from a refugee backgroundInitiative targeted students from all student groups or was not targeted to particular student groups

8. * What was the geographic location of the initiative?

(place X against corresponding groups)Metropolitan

Regional

Rural

Remote

Very remote

Unsure or not clear

9. * Please indicate the total cost of the initiative.

Please describe, if possible, the costs associated with the implementation of this initiative. (if applicable)Was a cost benefit analysis done for this initiative?* Personnel costs 24,500

* Materials      

* Administrative      

* Capital costs      

Other (please describe what this includes)Venue and cateringTeacher replacement days

12,500

Total $37,000

10. * Where did the funding for this come from?

(you may check more than 1 option)School/cluster funding

State or Territory Government funding

Australian Government funding

Privately raised funding

Other (please indicate the source)(Max 3,500 characters)

     

11. * To what extent were in-kind contributions needed for the initiative to be implemented?In-kind contributions refer either to staff and community volunteers or donated material resources or both. The response to this question provides an indication of the extent to which volunteers or donations may have been required for the initiative to have been implemented effectively

to a moderate extent If either moderate or major, please describe.(Max 1000 characters)

Schools provided resources to implement the project, for schools provided ooprotunity for dedicated time to allow teachers to plan and reflect.

Objectives and design of the initiative

12. * What factors prompted the adoption of the initiative?

Local assessments of student performance

Student results from NAPLAN

Meeting the needs of a changing student demographic

Raising expectations of student performance

A professional learning experience introducing new ideas or researchDistributed leadership

Other (please describe)     

13. * What were the main objectives of the initiative?Specifically, what student capabilities were you trying to improve? [200-400 words](Max 3,500 characters)

The main aims of the course were to explain to teachers how the English language makes meaning in Science, and the need to make explicit what might be previously considered implicit knowledge of how English works to suit purpose. It showed how students English language skills can be moved from concrete/personal contexts to abstract/impersonal contexts, and provided guidance in planning learning activities that would scaffold students to write their own texts. Participating teachers had the opportunity to:• Develop an understanding of learning theories that are underpinned by the role of language in learning; that is, learning and the role of the teacher in scaffolding students• Develop a pedagogy of explicitness and one in which high challenge works hand in hand with high support so that students are scaffolded into successful and sustained learning• Learn how to make explicit the implicit, so that students are scaffolded in their learning• Consider the different genres that constitute their subject and their inherent patterns of language• Understand how technicality and abstraction are constructed, what needs to be learned by students, and explore how teachers can support students to read and produce increasingly abstract and technical science texts• Develop an understanding of the English language resources that are needed to read and write texts that are longer and more complex, organised so that they are cohesive and coherent, and are expressed in ways that account for uncertainties of ideas and evidence in science• Implement this new knowledge of a more explicit pedagogy in the classroom.(John Polias, Lexised Education 2012)The student capabilities the project was trying to improve was the ability to learn in a mainstream science classroom, while still in the process of learning English, by explicitly learning how scientific genres are structured at the grammatical and whole text level, and by being scaffolded through classroom activities to access texts and produce texts of their own.

14. * In designing the initiative, how did you assess improvements in student performance?Provide information on the links between the objectives of the initiative and defined performance targets.You may tick more than 1 option.Local assessments of student performance

Student results from NAPLAN

Other (please describe)(Max 3,500 characters)

Improvements in student performance were monitored by teachers as the Genre Learning and Teaching Cycle progressed. Teacher judgements of student achievement were monitored against the ESL Companion to Victorian Essential Learnning Standards (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority). Their learning in science was also assessed the Science domain of the Victorian Essential Learning Standards.

Students were invited to comment on how they felt about their science learning experiences, and the result was generally positive.

Student success was also measured through their more active engagement with the subject area, their satisfaction with their involvement in Bridging programs, and their participation in the classroom. More students have selected to continue doing science in Years 10, 11 and 12 in 2013. This increase in science enrolments flags students’ improved confidence. Many EAL and refugee students in the program have also opted to continue at school into Years 11 and 12, and also to study science. This outcome is significant given the disrupted nature of their prior education, and the fact that they are still in the process of learning English.Teachers monitored and assessed student's participation and performance through video analysis and before and after student attitude reflections.

15. * Describe the key ideas and research that supported your selection of this particular initiative.(Max 3,500 characters)

Key ideas and research

Three key ideas guided this project:• Explicitly teaching the language demands of a subject area assists students to learn and to produce texts• Using the Genere Teaching and Learning Cycle will help teachers to plan activities that scaffold learners• Teachers can mentor other teachers, and take what they learn into other areas of their teaching practise increasing sustainability

Language theoryBased on the approach to language articulated by Halliday and Hasan (pioneers of Systemic Functional Linguistics), the project views schools as proponents of a specific culture. Within this broad education culture, the disciplines represent a further set of particular cultures, or communities of people engaged in the same specific field of inquiry.

Halliday and Hasan pointed out how cultures are expressed, defined and transmitted through language (or, more accurately, through meaning-making systems, including language, visual and symbolic representations). To acquire understanding involves the mastery of the codes and conventions that characterise the field of knowledge and the kind of task that the student is involved in. The different codes, conventions, texts and ways of thinking, are the genres of the various cultures.A further important perception is that meaning-making systems operate along a register continuum from the personal, concrete and specific towards the impersonal, abstract and general. Movement within that continuum requires a change in grammar, vocabulary and the way we organise texts.Students in schools need to acquire, quite literally, the language of a range of such cultures. The further the student’s home language is distanced from the languages of school (because of class or ethnicity or gender, or any other reason), the more pressing it is that teachers teach the genres of school systematically and explicitly. In doing so, they will of course be teaching the knowledge explicitly and thoroughly.

The next question is one of pedagogy. How can teachers teach knowledge in a way that enables students to articulate and transfer their understanding to contexts outside the lesson in which they learned it?

The project uses a Genre Teaching and Learning Cycle model to drive the application of the language theory sketched out above. The teaching and learning cycle establishes a basic pattern in which the knowledge is demonstrated and ideas discovered and explored in the first context-setting phase. The target text (linguistic, visual or symbolic) is then modelled and deconstructed. This is followed by a period of co-construction, with gradual release of teacher responsibility, until students are ready to produce and transfer independently by constructing their own texts or by reading authentic texts. An extremely important feature of the co-construction phase is the development of writing-like speech to support writing and reading.

The Genre Teaching and Learning Cycle is a methodology that has been used extensively in many contexts, including, in Victoria, in intensive on-arrival EAL settings. It works to frame teaching and learning across a sequence of lessons, within a single lesson and within fragments of lessons. As well as shaping the form of a lesson, it describes a habit of mind or a reflex behaviour in a teacher who has internalised the approach.

Implementation

16. * How were participants selected for the initiative?

Self selection

Analysis of needs

Other (please specify) (Max 3,500 characters)

An expression of interest was circulated to regions for schools with a significant EAL population to express interes in participating in the project. It was expected that participating schools would have identified Science as a priority in their school strategic plan.

Two of the three schools that were chosen had a sizeable cohort of refugee/refugee like students enrolled in mainstream for less than three years. These students usually spend around 12 months in an intensive English language program in an English Language School or Centre, and then enrol in a mainstream secondary school.

Much of the focus in supporting refugee students, is in ensuring that welfare needs are being met and that students have access to a fully functioning EAL program. At their school they typically receive targeted EAL support, sometimes through a bridging program especially designed to support these students. These students, new to English, as well as to basic content knowledge, begin to attend mainstream subject classes, they are often overwhelmed. This, along with other challenges can mean that students drop out of education. Their teachers are often unsure as to how to deal with the literacy and English language learning needs of these students, within a mainstream classroom environment.

While it can be difficult for students to succeed in the mainstream, it is essential for them to access mainstream classes as soon as possible, so that they do not feel they are being kept away from the school program. This project was developed in response to these issues, in the belief that this would better engage students in subject areas, in this instance Science.

17. * Provide an overview or narrative of the project, sufficient for a teacher to have a general understanding of the initiative. Include the design and logic, the major stages and what participants did when in each part of the project.

(Max 3,500 characters)

Following is a case study from one school tha provides an understanding of the initiative.

At one school, a team was formed which included the science faculty leader with two or three experienced science teachers. This group, together with the EAL co-ordinator, attended the three day training program, and two planning and reflection days, mentored by an EAL coach. The EAL coach took up a desk in the science staffroom, as part of a strategy to foster professional conversation. Days 4 and 5 were attended by the leading teacher responsible for literacy improvement in the school and Day 5 by one other science teacher, a new graduate.

Following Day 4, the EAL coach worked on regular basis with each of the participating teachers in various ways, including a detailed planning session with each of the participating teachers each week. At first, each teacher opted to experiment with different aspects of the program (e.g. visual representation, building writing-like speech). However, teachers very quickly felt the need to embrace the other components of the program, as they saw they were dealing with a whole or complete theory of language and a pedagogy that enables (even requires) every aspect to be addressed.

With a thorough introduction to the key ideas of both the linguistic and the pedagogical model teachers used this to demonstrate their personal expertise as scientists and teachers of science. It was necessary for the science teachers themselves to act as an expert source of target genres, while the EAL coach was able to encourage reflection, help to clarify intended student outcomes; and help identify the patterns in the language.

The project was extended during Terms 3 and 4 for two further science teachers on the same regular basis and to two other teachers (graduates).

18. * How were data on the outcomes of the project collected?

Questionnaires

Interviews

Tests or other formal assessments

Other (please specify) (Max 3,500 characters)

.

19. * Describe the extent to which participants and/or key stakeholders were involved in the design of data collection.

For example, you may have conducted consultations, focus groups, or interviews with parents and caregivers, or consulted teachers, in designing instruments to collect data.(Max 3,500 characters)

Data collection for the pilot was based on existing school practice including learning walks, classroom observation and reflection and mentoring were the norm. in school evaluation.

Student cohorts were monitored (non EAL, EAL , Refugee) to assess impact and engagement with the project.

Collection of data/information was also done through the evaluation of the bridging program, where students are asked to comment on issues such as:Their overall response to the programProblems they encounteredThe advice they would give teachers in their classes that would improve their learning.

20. * What types of comparisons were made to assess the contribution of the initiative in lifting literacy and numeracy outcomes for school students?

Before and after comparisons

Comparisons with participants and non-participants

Both

Comparisons between different categories of participants or stakeholdersOther (please describe) (Max 3,500 characters)

Teacher judgements agains the Victorian Essential Learning Standards and other class assessments in literacy and Science were used to identify growth in student achievement.

21. * How many participants were in each of the comparison groups?(Max 3,500 characters)

N/A

Outcomes

22. * To what extent did the initiative demonstrate that it contributed to improved student literacy or numeracy outcomes?

to a minor extent

23. * Describe the evidence used to support the rating given in the preceding question.(Max 3,500 characters)

As part of teacher judgements on student growth and associate in class assessments teachers particpating in the project identified that there had been growth in student understanding of science. As there were no standardised assessments that were used to identify student improvement in literacy this has been identified as a minor extent only.

24. * What were the main factors that contributed to the success of the initiative?Provide a detailed description and explanation with reference to the key ideas/research and/or prior experience which underpinned the initiative. [400-600 words](Max 3,500 characters)

The main factors contributing to the success of the project was the fact that for the schools, it was a program offered at the right time, and to teachers who were able to benefit from a new approach. The students, because of their backgrounds and stage of English language learning were vulnerable to not succeeding in the mainstream, and schools were wanting to identify more effective approaches for this cohort.

Other factors and conditions for success also were in place in the schools. Where the following pre conditions for success are in place, a program like this is more likely to be successful:• Positive perceptions of student potential to learn, an acceptance that teachers are both responsible for the learning in their classrooms and capable of delivering it, at point of need.• School leadership needs to have acknowledged the need for improvement in literacy and numeracy but also needs to locate the responsibility for that improvement in all of the subjects taught at the school.• Leadership needs to have established, or desire to establish, a culture of professional conversation and collaborative planning by providing structures and expectations that support this.

A project like the EAL-Science Project will succeed best in schools in which teachers routinely visit other classrooms in an effort to understand and develop best practice, in which effective student management is judged in terms of improved learning outcomes and in which improved learning outcomes are assessed on the basis of detailed and varied feedback from students.

A school also needs to understand the importance of teachers as learners, engaged in a process that requires planning, implementation and reflection. The school culture needs to respect the teachers’ capacity to apprentice students into the culture and knowledge of their discipline.

These pre-conditions existed in a large degree in the schools which took part in this pilot program.For the ongoing success of this program, schools would need to be able and willing to source and pay for appropriate training, delivered locally, and to provide on-going support to allow teachers to practise, improve and share their understanding and skills. Schools would need to find ways to deliver the training to staff within their subject domains, drawing heavily on their expert disciplinary skills, as well as working in a cross-disciplinary setting.

25. * Did the initiative produce any positive or negative outcomes that were unplanned or unanticipated? Were there factors which may have constrained or diluted the impact of the initiative?

Yes (please provide detail below) (Max 3,500 characters)

No

The main unanticipated outcome was the readiness of teachers to percieve the value of the approach to other learning areas, and the way in which they set about implementing them in subject areas such as maths, and also to realise the value of the approach to students other than the target group.

26. * Provide evidence to support the sustainability of the initiative, or information that indicates it could be sustainable. If longitudinal data are unavailable, what other data can support the likelihood of sustainability of the underlying concept or design?

(Max 3,500 characters)

Responsibilty for the implementation of and effectiveness of the initaitve rests with leadership and their ability to involve teachers in the process. Ownership of the program needs to be shared by the practitioners who implement it: they drive its evolution and development throughout the school, informed by their expert discipline knowledge. A forum, given high status, provides teachers with a place where they can share work, discuss blockers and similar issues, be accountable for what they are doing and receive recognition and encouragement for their work. Such a process handled well, provides an evidence base and research that supports sustainable and evolving change through supporting networks and knowledge sharing.

Evidence of sustainability, so far in this pilot project is the evidence of change and continued development in teacher practice. Teachers are able to articulate the changes in their practice, the change in student understanding of, and interaction with, the knowledge and the reasons why this is happening. They have a conceptual framework which equips them to locate difficulties students may encounter without apportioning blame, such as students who can’t read, or don't know enough English. They are able to critique traditional sources such as text-books, deciding whether the students need to be scaffolded to manage the text or whether the text is deficient. Because they understand how meaning is made in their subject, they are better able to analyse the demands the subject makes of their students. They have realised that their knowledge as scientists is as important as their teaching knowledge. To this mix is added new knowledge about how meaning is made. It was noticed that these teachers seem to find it impossible to teach in the ‘old’ way. They comment that they think differently about what they do, all the time.

Further evidence that the project was sustainable came from teacher evaluations. Teachers involved commented that even though the focus was on EAL students and science, they felt that strategies used were relevant for all their students and other subject areas; for example, a Principal commented, ''The plan now is to adopt the approach in other subjects including Mathematics, The Arts, Humanities and Technology.'' This Principal felt that … ''There is an absolute need to continue this work and see that the project learning is fully implemented across all KLAs and re-evaluated.' This Principal also felt strongly that the pilot group was at the point where they could train other staff into the future, as they had ‘… developed great resources including video recording, which we will be able to use in training other staff. We have made a commitment to the project and we will allow staff who have been trained, help train other staff, as well as seeing if we can maintain contact with key experts to deliver the key learning.’

Replication

27. * What challenges might a school prepare for if it undertakes this initiative?(Max 3,500 characters)

The main challenges, beyond the need for an approach which commits to embedding the program in the longterm, and which is adequately resourced, could well be around the challenges it gives to embedded practice - teachers need to be open minded about adding to their teaching repertoires, without feeling their previous practise is being challenged. The fact that this pilot started with a new cohort of students who had particular English language and literacy learning needs, and clearly needed a new approach if they were to be successful at learning in science classrooms, meant that teachers were open to change. Teachers were then able to see that these approaches had a wider application, for other students and in other learning areas.

Schools need to invest resources into the program and look to models of implementation identified in the case studies. Schools need to be clear as to how the program will enhance the teaching in the school and improve student learning, engagement and participation.

28. * What information indicates that the initiative could be replicated in a variety of different settings? What conditions would be required for the initiative to be successfully replicated across other schools, systems, locations or student groups?

(Max 3,500 characters)

This pilot project has been conducted in three schools and each school was able to achieve a level of success and application specific to the school context.

The pilot project provided school leadership and teachers with an evidence based professional learning strategy which could be successfully replicated and adapted for other school settings.

29. * Where has the initiative been shown to be effective?

Schools

Government

Non-government

Systemic

Groups

Early childhood

Primary school

High school

Special school

Other (please specify)     Settings

In school

After school

Home

Community

Locations

Metropolitan

Regional

Rural

Remote

Very remote

Additional information

30. * Provide three points that describe the essence of your project for a teacher audience.(Max 3,500 characters)

Teacher students the specific literacy demands of a subject area (in this instance science) increases their engagement and knowledge of the subject.

Collaboration with those teachers in a secondary setting that teach the same cohort of students brings together different sets of expertise

Use of an evidence based approach to pedagogy provides a strong foundation to support teaching for all students

31. If available, provide a good news story or testimonial.(Max 3,500 characters)

Principal testimonial:I believe that our involvement in the EAL Science Language Literacy Project in the last 11 months, which allowed access to language literacy experts, has focused attention on how best improve engagement and participation of not only EAL and or refugee students but all students. This project, in the Science learning area, has seen greater effort made in making the technical language much more explicit. This project has given us the opportunity to develop a teaching and learning continuum in Science, with provision to accurately scaffold language demands in a real, genre based, context, maximizing a student’s retention of knowledge irrespective of its abstractness. The professional dialogue that has occurred through our direct involvement in the project has resulted in significant change in our Science teaching. More students have selected to continue doing science in Year 10, 11 and 12 in 2013. This increase in science enrolments flags students’ improved confidence in embracing complex genres. It is particularly encouraging to see that many of our EAL and refugee students are selecting to go onto year 11 and 12 and do science, including many students who have had interrupted schooling. The plan now is to adopt the approach in other subjects including Mathematics, The Arts, Humanities and Technology. The increased number of new arrivals has also focussed our attention onto the EAL and language literacy needs of these students. This program came at an opportune time to influence changes at the school in the Transition process, Welfare, Course Counseling and Course Structures in place for these students. There is an absolute need to continue this work and see that the project learning is fully implemented across all learning areas and re-evaluated. The pilot group has developed great resources including video recordings, which we will be able to use in training other staff. We have made a commitment to the project and we will maintain attention to it through ensuring staff who have been trained can help train other staff, as well as seeing if we can maintain contact with key experts to deliver the key learnings.

Attach information or data

Please list and briefly describe any attachments to this form. (Excel spreadsheets, graphics, pictures, etc)Please note that these will not be included for assessment but may assist with the published article should the strategy be recommended and endorsed.

ReferencesMartin and Rose, Working with Discourse, Meaning beyond the Clause, 2007

Language and learning in the KLAs and the implications for curriculum writers, John Polias, Lexis Education: 2004 (based on: Halliday and Martin, 1995) http://education.qld.gov.au/literacy/docs/language-learning.pdf

Gibbons, Pauline, English Learners, Academic Literacy, and Thinking, 2009

O’Halloran, Kay, Mathematical Discourse. Language, symbolism and visual images, 2005South Australian Literacy Secretariat, http://www.decd.sa.gov.au/literacy/pages/Home/Resources/?reFlag=1