Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence
Project Descriptions
Instruction In Context
The projects in this program held that teaching, curriculum, and the school itself should be contextualized in the experiences, skills, and values of the community. In each of these projects, the researchers accepted the communities' sociocultural activities as the contexts for making school work meaningful, and are devising school activities to bridge home and school, thus building authentic classroom communities that can produce high academic achievement. Each project included a strong professional development component by creating sociocultural activities that allow teachers to understand the students' contexts and to develop ways to use these in the academic world. The professional development models examined include teacher as researcher, teacher as participant in the workplace, and teacher as joint worker with students.
Teaching Science to Students Placed at Risk: Teacher Research Communities as a Context for Professional Development and School Reform
Beth Warren and Ann S. Rosebery, TERC, Cambridge, MA
This project investigated teacher research communities as contexts for professional development in science for teachers of language minority students. The study developed a teacher research model that provided teachers with the skills and knowledge they need to make professional development an integral part of their everyday practice, a practice that is sensitive to local needs and diverse student populations.
Learn more on the CREDE Web site hosted by UC Berkeley.
Linking Home and School: A Bridge to the Many Faces of Mathematics
Marta Civil and Rosi Andrade, University of Arizona
Norma González, University of Utah
This project examined the gap between mathematics in school and mathematics outside school for language minority students. The study emphasized mathematics teaching that stresses students' own construction of meaning and connections to their world outside school. Mathematical learning communities in the classroom were developed, where students engage in mathematically rich situations through learning modules that capitalize on their knowledge and experiences of everyday life.
Learn more on the CREDE Web site hosted by UC Berkeley.
At-Risk Preschoolers' Questions and Explanations: Science Action at Home and in the Classroom
Maureen Callanan, University of California, Santa Cruz
This study investigated "why" questions asked by young children identified as "at risk" for educational failure because of limited English proficiency and/or poverty. The study focused on the nature of explanatory conversations at home and at school and on ways that parents and teachers can best encourage children's natural curiosity about scientific domains.
Learn more on the CREDE Web site hosted by UC Berkeley.
Developing a Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Science Curriculum
Trish Stoddart, University of California, Santa Cruz
Collaborating with three schools in the Language Acquisition through Science Education for Rural School (LASERS) project, this project conducted in-depth longitudinal case studies of language minority students. The project looked at student learning and language development; analyzed the funds of knowledge about science in the home and community; and analyzed instructional interactions between students and teachers.
Teaching/Learning in the Context of African American Community and Dialect
Michele Foster, Center for Education Studies, Claremont Graduate School
This study investigated whether teachers involved in a professional development program designed to expose them to cultural and linguistic information about African American students are able to translate this knowledge into appropriate pedagogy. The study documented how teachers at various stages of the process incorporate this knowledge into curricular, instructional, and pedagogical practices, and how the changed practice of teachers affects the academic achievement of African American students.
