THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP SELECTED SKILLS IN BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL PRESERVICE TEACHERS
Abstract
This research compared the effectiveness of two teaching strategies, designated as cooperative and self-instructional, on two groups of preservice teachers in the following areas: (1) ability to state behavioral objectives in English and Spanish; (2) ability to include Puerto Rican cultural elements in lesson plans in English and Spanish; (3) ability to plan for a variety of instructional strategies in lesson plans in English and Spanish; (4) inclusion of field-sensitive elements in lesson plans in English and Spanish; (5) inclusion of field-independent elements in lesson plans in English and Spanish; (6) total scores earned for lesson plans written in English and Spanish; (7) increase in posttest scores in English and Spanish; (8 and 9) comparison of group means across treatments for field-sensitive and field-independent scores in English and Spanish for lesson plans developed by individual participants. The forty participants in the study were undergraduate, Spanish-English, Puerto Rican, bilingual/bicultural teacher trainees, attending a public four year college in New York City and were within two years of receiving New York State provisional certification as elementary school teachers. Materials included two curricular training manuals and two screening instruments: an information sheet and a language proficiency test in English and Spanish. On a pre-posttest, consisting of multiple-choice questions in English and Spanish, participants were asked to identify: the most specific behavioral objective, the instructional strategy most appropriate to the specific lesson topic, and Puerto Rican and bicultural components. The evaluative checklist was developed to assess four selected areas in participants' lesson plans: behavioral objective, field-sensitive/field-independent elements, incorporation of Puerto Rican and bicultural elements, and instructional strategies. The training materials for participants included video presentations for both treatment groups. For the self-instructional group, a self-teaching package was provided. For the cooperative group, similar concepts were presented using scripts and materials that fostered teacher/student interaction. The findings indicated that the cooperative treatment group scored significantly higher in the following: ability to write behavioral objectives in English and Spanish; to include Puerto Rican cultural elements in English; to plan a variety of instructional strategies in English and Spanish; to include field-sensitive elements in English and Spanish; and earned higher posttest scores in English and Spanish. There was no significant difference between the groups in ability to include Puerto Rican cultural elements in Spanish. In addition, there was no significant difference in scores of field-independent elements in English and Spanish. There was a significant difference across treatments in Spanish for inclusion of field-sensitive elements. No significant difference across treatments in Spanish and in English was found for inclusion of field-independent elements. A major conclusion of this study is that the data were consistent with field-sensitive/field-independent learning characteristics of Hispanic populations identified by Ram(')irez and Castaneda (1974). This study provides findings on the effectiveness of teaching-learning strategies that might be utilized with adult, Hispanic, bilingual/bicultural teacher trainees. It suggests the need for staff development at the university level for monolingual/bilingual teacher education faculty to create awareness of teaching-learning styles across cultures and to develop teaching flexibility in them and their trainees. The need for the development of balanced bilingual teachers through training experiences both in Spanish and English is emphasized.
Subject Area
Teacher education
Recommended Citation
SEGAN, FRANCES ANDREA, "THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO STRATEGIES TO DEVELOP SELECTED SKILLS IN BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL PRESERVICE TEACHERS" (1980). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8021007.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8021007
