Enhancing mathematical instruction for emergent bilinguals through collaborative situated professional development

This study investigates the shifts in high school mathematics teachers’ instructional practices when working with emergent bilinguals (EBs) after participating in a collaborative situated professional development (CSPD) program alongside researchers. Over the course of one academic year, the teachers engaged in co-planning, co-teaching, and co-reflecting sessions with the research team while integrating research-based strategies to support EBs in learning mathematics. The CSPD also emphasized implementing cognitively demanding and contextually relevant mathematical tasks. The results reveal that the teachers’ instructional practices significantly improved after participation in the CSPD. These improvements include a stronger ability to maintain the cognitive demand of tasks throughout lessons, an increased focus on creating opportunities for students to articulate and explain their mathematical reasoning, and more effective incorporation of meaningful visual aids that enhance comprehension for EBs. These shifts highlight the potential of CSPD to positively impact mathematics instruction for linguistically diverse classrooms.