Professional Development and Teacher Efficacy: Contexts of What, When, and How in Serving ELLs

Abstract

The increasing numbers of ELLs (English Language Learners) in U.S. classrooms has prioritized into building quality teacher education programs for teachers so that they have the pedagogical tools necessary to support their students. A continued focus with professional development at the local, state, and national level has gained momentum to ensure that mainstream teachers have appropriate cultural competence skills and research-based practices to meet students’ diverse linguistic and academic needs. This mixed method study on 144 PK-12 teachers with five or less years of experience highlighted the importance of teachers’ perceptions and efficacy beliefs in working with ELLs. Five in-depth cases illustrated a support for professional development in creating high efficacious behaviors for teaching ELLs. Additionally, a quantitative finding augmented teacher narratives to reveal a statistical significance in efficacy beliefs for teachers who received adequate inservice professional development as opposed to teachers who were not afforded those opportunities.