Virtual Professional Development to Increase Knowledge, Use, and Self-Efficacy of Teachers Teaching Emergent Multilingual Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, and Social Studies Content: A Mixed Methods Case Study

The number of English language learners, often referred to as emergent multilinguals (EMs), in schools has significantly increased over the last decade, and teachers are not fully prepared to teach this growing population because of limited training and a lack of skills necessary to address academic needs in both language and content. This mixed-methods study explored the effectiveness of an online professional development (PD) to increase teachers’ knowledge, skills, use, and self-efficacy in teaching science, technology, engineering, math, and social studies (STEMSS) content and the English language in tandem. Vygotsky’s socio-cultural theory and Lave and Wenger’s community of practice theory guided the development, documentation and analysis of the impact of the professional development. Twenty-four Arizona K-12 teacher participants completed a pre-survey, an online PD, and, finally, a post-survey and interview. Dependent t-test results provided evidence the PD significantly increased participants’ self-reported knowledge, use, and self-efficacy to support EMs’ academic vocabulary in content areas. The impact of the PD on these three constructs was further supported with data-driven themes generated from the interview data. Participants overwhelmingly valued the peer interaction for increasing their knowledge and understanding of effective pedagogical practices and their self-efficacy in supporting EMs in their classrooms.