Understanding Teacher Beliefs and Instructional Decision Making Concerning Disciplinary Literacy: The Case of Secondary Teachers in an Urban School

Kellee D Jenkins

Abstract


This study was set to examine the integration of disciplinary literacy instruction as part of a comprehensive literacy program at the secondary level.  The study asked two essential questions: (1) What are teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about disciplinary literacy instruction? (2) How do teachers’ knowledge and beliefs influence their instructional decision making? Eight teachers were interviewed and observed.  Results indicate that teachers believe they are responsible for developing students’ literacy skills in the discipline they taught.  Teachers emphasize discipline specific literacy practices and strategies to improve students’ literacy skills as well as to enhance students’ content knowledge.  Findings also specify that professional development is a key factor in the continuity and success of teachers’ literacy instruction across the disciplines.  Through professional development, teachers appear to develop a deep understanding of what it means to engage students in discipline specific literacy practices.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.17.1.11


Keywords


Secondary Literacy Instruction, Teacher Preparation Programs, Professional Development, School Reform

Full Text:

PDF

References


Allington, R. (2005). What really works for struggling readers: Designing research-based programs. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. doi: 10.1086/461151.

Anders, P.I., Hoffman, J.V., Duffy, G.G. (2000). Teaching teachers to teach reading: Paradigm shifts, persistent problems, and challenges. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & B. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 719-742). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. doi: 10.4324/9781410605023.ch38.

Bain, R. (2000). Rounding up unusual suspects: Using research and theory to shape history instruction. In P. Stearns, P. Seixas, & S. Wineburg (Eds.), Knowing, teaching, and learning history: National and internationals perspectives (pp. 331-353). New York: New York University Press.

Bean, T.W. (2000). Reading in the content areas: Social constructivist dimensions. In M.L. Kamil, P.B.Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & B. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research: Volume III (pp. 629-644). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. doi: 10.4324/9781410605023.ch34.

Bean, R. (2004). The reading specialist. Leadership for the classroom, school, and community. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Biancarosa, G., & Snow, C. (2006). Reading next: A vision for action and research in middle and high school literacy: A report to the Carnegie Corporation of New York (2nd Ed.). Washington, DC: Alliance for Excellent Education.

Bintz, T. (1997). Exploring reading nightmares of middle and secondary school teachers. Journal of Adolescent & Adult, 41(1), 3-29.

Bransford, J.B., Brown, A.L., Cocking, R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.National Academy Press: Washington, D.C. doi: 10.17226/9853.

Buchman, M. (1987). Teaching knowledge: The lights that teachers live by. Oxford Review of Education, 13, 151-164. https://education.msu.edu/NCRTL/PDFs/NCRTL/IssuePapers/ip871.pdf.

Conley, D.T. (2008). College knowledge: What it really takes for students to succeed and what we can do to get them ready. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Castek, J. and Beach, R. (2013). Using apps to support disciplinary literacy and science learning. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 56(7), 554-564. doi 10.1002/JAAL.180.

Correnti, R. (2007). An empirical investigation of professional development effects on literacy instruction using daily logs. Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 29, 239-261. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.3102/0162373707309074.

Dana, N. F., & Silva, D. Y. (2003). The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research: Learning to teach and teaching to learn through practitioner inquiry. Thousand oaks, CA: Corwin Press, INC.

Darling-Hammond, L., & McLaughlin, M.W. (1994). Policies that support professional development in an error of reform. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 597-604. doi/abs/10.1177/003172171109200622.

Desimone, L.M., Porter, A.C., & Birman, B.F. (2002). Effects of Professional development on teachers’ instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal study. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 81-112. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.3102/01623737024002081

Donahue, D.M. (2000). Experimenting with texts: New science teachers’ experience and practices as readers and teachers of reading. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 43(8), 728-739. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40014698.

Elmore, R. (2004). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard Educational Press.

Fang, Z. (2014). Preparing content area teachers for disciplinary literacy instruction. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy , (57(6), 444-448. Doi 10.1002/jaal.269.

Goldman, S.R., Brit, M., Brown, W., Cribb, G., George, G., & Greenleaf, C. (2016). Disciplinary literacies and learning to read for understanding: A conceptual framework for disciplinary literacy. Educational Psychologist,51(2), 219-246. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2016.1168741.

Gomez, L. & Gomez, K. (2007). Reading for learning: Literacy supports for 21st-century Work. Phi Delta Kappa International, 89 (3), 224-228

Graue, M. E., & Walsh, D. J. (1998). Studying children in context: Theories, methods, and ethics. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Guskey, T. (2000). Evaluating Professional development. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Hall, L.A. (2005). Teachers and content area reading: Attitudes, beliefs and change. Teaching and Teacher Education, 21,403-414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2005.01.009

Heller, R., & Greenleaf, C. (2007). Literacy instruction in the content areas: Getting to the core of middle and high school improvement. Alliance for Excellent Education: Washington, D.C. http://www.all4ed.org

Herber, H.L. (1970). Teaching reading in the content areas. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Knapp, M. S., Copland, M. A., & Talbert, J. E. (2003). Leading for learning: Reflective tools for and district leaders. Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. http://www.ctpweb.org.

Lee, C.D. (2007). Culture, literacy, and learning: Taking Bloom in the midst of the whirlwind. NY: Teachers College Press

Lee, C. D., & Spratley, A. (2010). Reading in the disciplines: The challenges of adolescent literacy. New York, New York: Carnegie Corporation of New York. https://www.carnegie.org/media/filer_public/88/05/880559fd-afb1-49ad-af0ee10c8a94d366/ccny_report_2010_tta_lee.pdf

Leithwood, K. Louis, K.S., Anderson, S., & Wahlstorm, K. (2004). How leadership influences student learning.

Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement. Retrieved December 10, 2008 from http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/Documents/How-Leadership-Influences-Student-Learning.pdf

Marshall, C. & Rossman, G.B. (2006). Designing qualitative research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

McLaughin, M. & Talbert, J. (2001). Professional communities and the work of high school teaching. Chicago: University of Chicago press.

Merriam, S. B. (2002). Qualitative research in practice: Examples for discussion and analysis. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Moje, E.B. (1996). “I teach students, not subjectsâ€: Teacher-student relationships as contexts for secondary literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 31,173-195. doi/10.1598/RRQ.31.2.4/pdf.

Moje, E.B. (2008). Foregrounding the disciplines in secondary literacy teaching and learning: A call for change. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 52(2), 96-107. doi: 10.1598/JAAL.52.2.1.

Moje, E.B. (2015). Doing and teaching disciplinary literacy with adolescent learners: A social and cultural enterprise. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 254-278. https://doi.org/10.17763/0017-8055.85.2.254

McConachi, S.M. & Apodaca, R.E. (2010). Embedding disciplinary literacy: Leadership and professional learning. In S.M. McConachie & A.R. Petrosky (Eds.), Content matters (pp.163-196). Jossey-Bass. doi: 10.1002/9781118269466.ch7.

Monte-Sano, C., De La Paz, S. (2014). Implementing a disciplinary-literacy curriculum for US history: Learning from expert middle school teachers in diverse classrooms. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 46(4), 540-575. http://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2014.904444.

Moore, D., Readence, J.E., & Rickelman, R.J. (1983). An historical exploration of content area reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 419-438. doi: 10.2307/747377.

National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. Retrieved January 12, 2008 from https://www1.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/Documents/report.pdf.

O’Brien, D., Stewart, R., Moje, E. (1995). Why content literacy is difficult to infuse into secondary school: Complexities of curriculum, pedagogy, and school culture. Reading Research Quarterly, 30,442-462. doi: 10.2307/747625.

Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers’ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3), 307-332.

Patton, M. Q. (2001). Qualitative evaluation and research methods (2nd ed). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Pourdavood, R.G., & Lui, Xiongyi. (2017). Pre-service Elementary teachers’ experiences, expectations, beliefs, and attitudes toward mathematics teaching and learning. International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 16(11), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.16.11.1

Rainey, E.C. (2017). Disciplinary literacy in English language arts: Exploring the social and problem-based nature of literary reading and reasoning. Reading Research Quarterly, 52(1), 53-72. DOI 10.1002/rrq.154

Schram, T. (2003). Conceptualizing qualitative inquiry: Mind work for fieldwork in education and the social sciences. Columbus, OH: Merrill-Prentice Hall.

Shanahan, T., & Shanahan, C. (2012). Teaching disciplinary literacy to adolescents: Rethinking content-area literacy. Harvard Educational Review: 78(1), 40-59. doi: 10.17763/haer.78.1.v62444321p602101.

Shearer, J.Z., Gomez, K., Herman, P., Gomez, L., White, J., Williams, A. (2009). Literacy infusion in a high school environmental science curriculum. In K. Bruna & K. Gomez (Eds.), The work of language in multicultural classrooms (pp.93-114). New York: Routledge.

Shulman, L. (1987). Knowledge and teaching: Foundations of the new reform. Harvard Educational Review, 57(1), 1- 23. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.57.1.j463w79r56455411.

Torgesen, J., Houston, D., & Rissman, L. (2007). Improving literacy instruction in middle and high schools: A guide for principals. Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. http://www.centeroninstruction.org/files/Principal s Guide Secondary.pdf.

Yin, R. K. (2003). Case study research: Design and methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.


Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


e-ISSN: 1694-2116

p-ISSN: 1694-2493