2018-2019 UGA/COSTA RICA IC INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Paula J. Mellom, PhD

Jodi P. Weber, EdS

Rebecca K. Hixon, PhD

Diego Boada, MEd

Costa Rica

April 6, 2018

Center for Latino Achievement and Success in Education

(CLASE)

Informational Meeting

The CLASE

Professional

Development

Team

• Dr. Mellom lived and taught in Costa Rica for 10 years

• Taught a Study Abroad for 12 years that had a service learning component with MEP schools

• Been working with CINDE for 2.5 years to develop the “Two in a Box” project

• Pilot IC teacher collaboration began in 2016 with 7 MEP educators and 9 U.S. middle school teachers

Pilot Results:

• Increased English Aquisition (reported by teachers and MEP)

• Increased Student Motivation (CLASE study)

• Community of Practice between US and CR Teachers/Students

• Bank of Lessons (on the Platform)

University of Georgia/Costa Rica Partnership: A Bit of History

Dirección Regional de

Educación Institución Educativa Nombre del docente Niveles

San José Norte Escuela Cedros de Montes de Oca Viridiana Alvarado Bejarano

Cartago CTP Ing. Mario Quirós Sasso Aldo Enrique Sanabria

Cedeño

10th, 11th, 12th

Heredia CTP Jesús Ocaña Rojas Álvaro Enrique Cortés

González

10th, 11th, 12th

San José Norte Liceo Experimental Bilingüe de

Moravia

Verónica Ramírez Agüero 7th

San José Norte Escuela de Coronado Kristine Gamboa Cordero 3rd, 4th, 6th

San José Central Escuela Central de San Sebastián Jonathan Elizondo Mejías 2nd, 6th

Dirección

Desarrollo

Curricular

Departamento de Primero y Segundo

Ciclos

Yaudy Ramírez Vásquez Asesora Nacional de

Inglés

Pilot Project - Participants

Traditional Language Teaching Tends To Be:

• Decontextualized

• Large groups – limited individual language practice

• Grammar Translation –limited applied usage

Traditional Language Teaching vs.

Instructional Conversations

Instructional Conversations: • Multiplies speaking time around

meaningful topics in small groups

• Offers space for teachers to formatively

assess and differentiate

• Increases teacher and student

collaboration and student autonomy

• Provide a framework for applied,

meaningful language learning and

practice embedded in contextualized

content

The Instructional Conversation (IC) Pedagogy

•Initially developed by the University of

California Berkeley’s Center for

Research on Education, Diversity &

Excellence (CREDE)

•Anchored in both sociocultural and

cognitive-developmental theory

(Tharp & Gallimore,1988).

•Supported by four decades of multi-method, quasi-experimental

research and CLASE’s randomized controlled trial.

Mellom, Gokee, Weber,

2017

The Arch of Collaborative

Conversation-Based

Instruction

What is it?

• Research-Based System for

Collaborative Conversation-

Based Instruction

• Tools for Practical Application

• How to Teach Content and

Language together

Student Testimony

UGA/Costa Rica International

Instructional Conversation Project Proposal

Overarching Goal: To partner with various stakeholders to

leverage previous work and expand and extend ICs in Costa Rica to

improve English and content education.

The Project has three specific objectives:

1) To provide a 30-hour Foundational Training in Instructional

Conversation (IC)

2) To open spaces for Collaboration and Cultural Exchange

3) To create a Sustainable Professional Learning Community

Objective #1: Foundational Training

To provide a 30-hour Foundational Training in Instructional

Conversation (IC)

● 30-hour (4 days) at the UGA Costa Rica Campus in San

Luis de Monteverde (August 24-27 + travel)

● Theoretical grounding in the Instructional Conversation (IC)

pedagogy

● Provides opportunities to practice and design IC lessons

using teachers’ curriculum

Objective #2: International Collaboration and Cultural Exchange

To open spaces for Collaboration and Cultural Exchange among

teachers from U.S. and Costa Rica including:

● Technical High School English Teachers from Costa Rican public schools

● Technical High School Teachers from at least two counties in Georgia

● Peace Corp volunteers in Costa Rica

● English Language Fellow and Fulbright English Teaching Assistants based

at the U.S. Embassy in Costa Rica

Teachers would be chosen and intentionally paired based on content specialty

(i.e. A teacher of English from a Technical School with Culinary Arts in Costa

Rica would be paired with a Culinary Arts teacher from Georgia)

Objective #3: Online Professional Learning Community

To create a Sustainable Professional Learning Community

mediated through the CLASE IC Online Platform:

● Resources (teacher lesson plans, training videos, etc.)

● Follow-up PD (online learning labs, teacher forums,

coaching, webinars)

● Virtual classrooms for teacher and student collaborative work

and exchange

Training Location

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLK8edB4siE&feature=youtu.be

IC Teacher Community of Practice Online Platform

School Districts in Georgia with

Teachers Trained By Spring 2018https://drive.google.com/open?id=188qgM0oc9Pb_rtp5A8B1GZMGWW1A66lP&usp=sharing

•418 educators

•100+ schools from 34 districts in Georgia

•7 members from out of state or

international

•Members of the CLASE Platform teach in a variety of

content areas including Art, ELA, ESOL, Math, Physical

Education, Science, Social Studies, Spanish, Gifted and

Special Education

Activity Purpose

Participate in a 30-hour foundational

training in the IC pedagogy with

opportunities to practice and design

IC lessons - scheduled for August 23-

28, 2018 at the UGA Costa Rica

campus in San Luis de Monteverde

● To give teachers the tools necessary to sustainably plan and implement

Instructional Conversations (ICs) in their classrooms

● To open spaces for collaboration and cultural exchange among the

teacher participants from the different stakeholder groups (and their

students)

Actively participate in various follow-

up PD activities on the Online

Platform (i.e. online webinars,

teacher forums, learning labs, etc.)

● To create a sustainable Professional Learning Community mediated

through the CLASE instructional Conversation Online Platform

● To offer a space for continuous support in implementing IC-JPAs in your

classroom

Collaboratively create and upload IC-

JPA lessons with partner teachers

(within schools, across schools and

internationally) utilizing the Online

Platform

● To offer opportunities for virtual cultural collaboration and exchange for

both the teachers and their students

● To strengthen content and English language learning in both Georgia

and Costa Rican Classrooms

Regularly implement IC lessons in

the classroom and videotape at

least 2 per semester (a total of 4)

● To strengthen content and English language learning in both Georgia

and Costa Rican Classrooms

● To provide non-evaluative feedback to strengthen practice

Year-Long MEP/District/Participant Commitment

Stakeholder Joint Productive Activity

Instructional Goal: to explore the different stakeholders’ goals for the

project

Task Instructions within your stakeholder groups:

● Discuss what you have heard about ICs and the Project

● Reflect on your own goals for English education in Costa Rica and your

organization’s mission statement,

● Create a four-column chart considering the following for your group How would the Project help meet your organization’s Goals?

Strengths you bring to the Project...

Questions you have about the Project...

Needs you identify for the Project...

Norms and GoalsGenerally we set Norms and Goals but today as we work

we’d ask that you consider:

• What norms for conversation are necessary for a

successful meeting where all voices are heard?

• How should we treat each other (speak, act, interact) to

come to consensus on a path forward toward shared

goals?

• What personal challenges do you have in group meetings

(i.e. talk too much, interrupt, don’t talk)?

• What goal might you set (i.e. invite others, share)?

Stakeholder Joint Productive Activity

Instructional Goal: to explore the different stakeholders’ goals for the

project

Task Instructions within your stakeholder groups:

● Discuss what you have heard about ICs and the Project

● Reflect on your own goals for English education in Costa Rica and your

organization’s mission statement,

● Create a four-column chart considering the following for your group How would the Project help meet your organization’s Goals?

Strengths you bring to the Project...

Questions you have about the Project...

Needs you identify for the Project...

Debrief and SynthesisChoose one person to introduce your team to the group and share:

• Your team members’ names

• What group you represent

• Your chart

What Does This Look Like?

Results of Madeline Jones’s M.A. Thesis in Linguistics The Impact of EFL Teacher Motivational Strategies on Student Motivation to Learn English in Costa Rica

Dornyei and Guilloteaux’s (2009) Motivation Orientation of Language Teaching

(MOLT). 1) attitudes towards the course, 2) linguistic self-confidence, 3) L2

classroom anxiety, and 4) external factors

● The results suggests that a teacher who speaks frequently (even if that

speech is designed to be helpful, as with scaffolding) can “get in the way” of

student motivation.

● Highest student motivation rates, as measured by both the student

questionnaires and the video analysis of observable classroom behaviors,

were from classrooms where teachers implemented ICs with fidelity.

Conclusion: When teachers speak less and, instead, facilitate

collaborative, challenging activities that encourage deep discussion,

motivation and language achievement improves