Instruction to Help Educators Meet the Needs of English Learners

The number of English learners (EL) is rapidly increasing in US public schools. By 2025, one in four students will be an EL student. However, educators are not adequately trained in meeting the needs of these students. To address this need, an online instructional module was designed and developed to assist secondary educators. In terms of design, the online module incorporated elements of Gagné’s Nine Events of Instruction and case-based methods, as well as Keller’s ARCS-V Model. It was designed to introduce learners to strategies that could be easily implemented in classrooms.

The online module was evaluated through two rounds of usability testing and one learning assessment. The usability study focused on the usability of the online module, while the learning assessment focused on the quality and effectiveness of the instruction. The usability study revealed that certain design aspects of the online module needed to be fixed in order to make navigation and usability easier. The results from the learning assessment showed that Part 4 of the online module did not fully meet the needs of the participants (n=12). More specifically, additional examples and resources for core and elective classes would need to be added to the online module in order to make it more effective. Taken together, the online module provided a toolbox for secondary teachers to create more equitable lessons for EL students in their classrooms.