Browsing by Author "Covarrubias, Maritza"

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    Academic Success of English Language Learners: Are Mainstream Teachers Underprepared?
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2015-04-17) Covarrubias, Maritza; Teemant, Annela; Bhathena, Cathy
    The population of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Indiana schools has increased over the years and will keep increasing. However, the graduation rates of ELLs and their standardized test scores are not improving. After reading various articles about why this might be occurring and using my personal experience as an ELL, there was one factor that stood out to me: mainstream teachers are underprepared to work with ELLs. The purpose of this research project is to investigate how prepared mainstream teachers feel to work with ELLs and what, if any, are the barriers that keep them from doing so. For this project, I will be using mixed methods research: qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative research will be the primary method and will be collected in the form of teacher interviews. These interviews will include questions about how teachers feel about working with ELLs and the teachers’ observations about how ELLs function in their classrooms. The qualitative research will be supported by quantitative research that will be collected through surveys and classroom observations of teacher pedagogy. The overall goal of this project is to help make classrooms places where ELLs can be academically successful and improve graduations rates and test scores.
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    Beliefs and Attitudes: How the Presence of English Language Learners in Mainstream Classrooms Affects Classroom Practices
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2016-04-08) Covarrubias, Maritza; Teemant, Annela; Bhathena, Cathy
    As the population of English Language Learners (ELLs) in Indiana schools increases, mainstream teachers have the responsibility of effectively teaching them. However, research indicates that there are various factors that may hinder a mainstream teacher’s ability to do this. One of the factors that stood out to me is the teacher’s beliefs and attitudes towards ELLs. This research project will focus on mainstream teachers in Indiana schools and how their beliefs and attitudes towards ELLs affect classroom practices. Further, it will investigate whether teacher preparation has an impact on mainstream teachers’ attitudes and beliefs towards their ELLs. The overall goal of this research project is to provide insight into the practices mainstream teachers in Indiana are using in the classroom to assist ELLs. Data will be collected through qualitative methods. Teacher interviews and classroom observations will be conducted. The teacher interviews will help to understand how teachers work with ELLs in the classroom, what feelings they have about ELLs, and how they modify their lessons to fit the needs of ELLs. The classroom observations will help to support the data collected by the interviews. Classroom observations will look for what visible modifications teachers are making to assist ELLs and what attitudes they portray about ELLs. This is a starting research project and there are no definite results or conclusions at the moment.