Thornton, Ann Hill (2019-05). Improving Instructional Practices Through Technology Integration: A Mixed Methods Study of ELL Academic Improvement. Doctoral Dissertation.
Thesis
At Grand Intermediate School, teachers work with a large population of English language learners (ELL). The teachers were all trained to use the Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model (Echevarria, Vogt, and Short, 2017) to help ELL students increase their English fluency and succeed academically. The instructional strategies in place, while sound, did not sufficiently bridge the language gaps to help students identified as ELL catch up to their native English-speaking peers. The sixth-grade science teachers were provided with professional development (PD) to improve technology integration practices in instruction with the goal being improved academic success of students identified as ELL. An embedded mixed methods design was used in this study. Before the intervention, quantitative data was collected in the form of Likert-scale teacher survey and student test results. The teachers were provided with two cycles of PD, classroom observations, learning walks, and peer coaching to help implement technology in instruction. The data was collected during the intervention phase from the pre and post-tests. Before and after the intervention, the teachers completed the post Likert-scale survey. The student data was analyzed using the Mann-Whitney U test. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the results of the pre and post teacher surveys.
