Secondary Content Teachers' Implementation of Professional Learning About Quality Interactions for English Learners

A significant aspect of English learners’ language development process entails their participation in quality interactions about academic content during classroom instruction. The 2019 program evaluation of the English Language Development Office in County Public Schools (CPS), a public school district in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States, indicated that English learners in CPS secondary schools infrequently engaged in quality interactions with classmates. To address the lack of quality interactions in academic discourse during content instruction, CPS facilitated professional learning for secondary content teachers about quality interactions for English learners. This sequential, mixed methods research study investigated the extent to which CPS secondary core content teachers transferred the quality interactions professional learning to their classroom instruction, as well as factors that facilitated or hindered this transfer of learning. Surveys, classroom observations, and interviews provided data about teachers’ implementation of their professional learning. Analysis of the data led to five findings. First, teachers reported varying levels of implementation of the quality interactions professional learning. Second, the level of implementation teachers reported did not necessarily align with classroom observations. Third, the design of teachers’ professional learning appeared to be related to their classroom implementation. Fourth, teachers’ beliefs might have supported and hindered the transfer of their professional learning to classroom instruction. Fifth, the demands of teaching could have hindered the transfer of teachers’ professional learning to their classroom instruction. Recommendations about how to proceed with the quality interactions professional learning initiative in CPS are based on these findings.