The National Science Foundation has granted the College of Education a three-year Improving Undergraduate STEM Education award, "Enhancing Preparation of Bilingual Science Teachers: Linking Pedagogical Content Knowledge to a Cross-Linguistic Approach."
The $399,997 award will be focused on improving the design, implementation and study of the revised first-year Bilingual Education/ESL Preparation program within the Department of Teacher and Administrator Preparation.
The research team will investigate how pre-service teachers reason and make decisions about science content and pedagogical approaches to better connect their students' linguistic and cultural abilities while leveraging the unique linguistic practices of bilingual students.
Zulma Mojica, assistant professor of bilingual/ESL education and principal investigator for the project, said this grant will prepare future bilingual educators to create instruction that properly meets the science and linguistic needs of new generations of bilingual/ESL K-12 learners.
"We're taking this approach because education is evolving and we need to give our students a different set of tools to teach in their future classrooms," said Mojica. "We want to make sure that teachers are not only getting the science content they need to learn to teach science, but also that they improve their own linguistic skills to teach bilingual/ESL learners."
Dr. Mojica, along with Cory Forbes, the Fenton Wayne Robnett Endowed professor; Patricia Saenz, assistant professor of practice in the Department of Teacher and Administrator Preparation; Silvia Jessica Mostacedo Marasovic, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Higher Education Adult Learning and Organizational Studies; and Brenda Costello, graduate student in earth and environmental science, will be redesigning the junior methods class "Science and Health Education in Dual-Language Settings" and creating online English and Spanish science content support modules.
The team will also develop and implement a summer bilingual community science internship in collaboration with Dallas-Fort Worth partners.
"One of the areas of growth in teacher preparation is actually being out in the field and working in the community," said Mojica. "As part of this grant, we've proposed to create new opportunities for students to go in and do an internship with the groups that they are going to serve—in this case, bilingual English and Spanish-speaking students."
Mojica says science pedagogy, specifically bilingual science pedagogy, is a huge area of need and plays a role in the shortage of bilingual science teachers. She adds that the preparation and readiness of teachers can really transform the futures of bilingual K-12 students and in turn push them to pursue STEM careers.
"My job is to equip and empower our students so they can transfer that mentality to their own classrooms," said Mojica. "I definitely think that if we prepare teachers and equip them with the skills to teach bilingual students, then it can make a huge difference in the long run."
