Professional Development for Teachers of English Learners (ELs): How Constructivist Thinking and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Can Support Best Practice for ELs

Introduction

As teachers of English Learners (ELs), educators must consider multiple perspectives and influences that may impact their students’ academic learning and language acquisition. This chapter specifically examines how the literature of culturally responsive teaching, effective professional development (PD), and constructivism can be utilized to benefit ELs. By accentuating a distinct review of the literature and the results of an inservice research study, this chapter contains the following objectives:

• 1.

  To guide the reader through the literature and allow the reader to construct potential connections from three lenses of theory (culturally responsive teaching, effective professional development, and constructivism) when planning teacher PD.

• 2.

  To allow the readers the opportunity to reflect on their own PD experiences and the learning opportunities they may provide for ELs.

• 3.

  To share key findings from the research study on effective professional development for teachers of ELs.

• 4.

  To provide implications and conclusions based on the findings.

• 5.

  To provide recommendations for effective PD for teachers of ELs.

Background: Pd For Culturally Responsive Teaching

This chapter highlights key theories of literature and their relation to teaching English Learners: culturally responsive teaching, effective professional development, and the constructivist approach. With each theory, connections to English Learners and their second language acquisition (SLA) are demonstrated to provide the foundation to the findings of the author’s study. The purpose of this literature review is to present culturally responsive pedagogy in relation to the learning and language needs of ELs, what effective professional development looks like for teachers of ELs, and the constructivist approach to learning as it connects with both culturally responsive pedagogy and effective professional development.