A Design-Based Model of Teacher Professional Learning in the LISELL-B Project

Abstract

The Language-rich Inquiry Science with English Language Learners through Biotechnology (LISELL-B) project is the latest iteration of an ongoing design-based research project to develop, test, and refine a teacher professional learning framework and a pedagogical model for teaching science with emergent bilingual learners. The LISELL-B professional learning framework and pedagogical model support middle school and high school science and ESOL teachers, their emergent bilingual students, and those students’ families in gaining proficiency with science investigation practices and with the academic language of science. The project uses science, and particularly biotechnology, as a context for developing the problem solving and communication skills that emergent bilingual learners need to attain academic success and access to college and career pathways. LISELL-B collaborates with ten schools in two Georgia school districts, in what Wortham has called the new Latino diaspora, the region of the Southeastern U.S. with rapidly changing demographics driven largely by Latino/a immigration from Mexico, Central America, and South America. Schools and teachers in this region have historically had little interaction or experience with teaching emergent bilingual learners, but are now confronted with classes that may be predominantly first- or second-generation immigrant students. In our chapter, we describe the LISELL-B pedagogical model and professional learning framework and our efforts to refine, disseminate, and sustain this model over time.