(Download) "Participant Structures As Professional Learning Tasks and the Development of Pedagogical Language Knowledge Among Preservice Teachers." by Teacher Education Quarterly ~ Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Participant Structures As Professional Learning Tasks and the Development of Pedagogical Language Knowledge Among Preservice Teachers.
- Author : Teacher Education Quarterly
- Release Date : January 01, 2011
- Genre: Education,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 259 KB
Description
English-Language Learners (ELLs, English-Learners, ELs) are a particularly challenging sector of the student population in United States schools. They constitute an increasingly larger presence in most school districts, growing 51 percent in ten years to 5.1 million in 2006 (National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition and Language Instruction Educational Programs, 2007). Despite becoming more common, schools have yet to figure out ways to meet the needs of these students, who continue to lag behind in most academic achievement measures (Editorial Projects in Education, 2009). Although "English-Language-Learner" is an important demographic category, the designation is problematic as a reference point for teaching practice among teachers and teacher educators. In this article I argue for a shift in the definition of teaching practice for teachers and teacher educators away from "English learners" toward "language use for academic purposes" as a perspective from which to examine our practice. This self-study is an instance of a teacher educator interested in experiential, hands-on pedagogy to foster critical language awareness (Alim, 2005) among preservice teachers. As I discuss, this is an important element of Pedagogical Language Knowledge development, a variation in Shulman's (1987) Pedagogical Content Knowledge construct. The research questions guiding my self-study are: What role does language as contextual variable play in preservice teachers' understanding of participant structures (Leunig, 2008; Philips, 2009) as Professional Learning Tasks (PLTs) (Ball & Cohen, 1999)? And how does this understanding relate to preservice teachers' emerging pedagogical content knowledge for language development?