Enhancing Conceptual Learning By Understanding Levels Of Language-Rich Teaching

Abstract

Any number of successful teaching strategies use a mixture of methods rich in language use to enhance conceptual learning. Not all language-rich teaching leads to equivalent conceptual gain. A year-long study was conducted in 3 high school physics classes to provide empirical support for the existence of levels of language-rich teaching. Three levels (low, medium, and high) of language-rich teaching were investigated. Each level was characterized by a unique language-rich teaching method: low level by hands-on, medium level by small groups, and high level by active mental processing (AMP) journal keeping. Once a week, each level experienced a lesson that promoted linguistic interaction prompted by accomplishing a task. The hands-on group formed lab teams to design and conduct a short experiment. The small group class solved textbook problems in small cooperative groups. The active mental processing (AMP) group responded to teacher prompts regarding demonstrations by writing in journals and structured discursive interaction. All of the remaining four lessons per week were identical. First semester post tests revealed the order of class means to be: hands-on small group AMP journal. Males consistently scored better than females, but female gain scores paralleled male gain scores for both semesters. At the beginning of the second semester, the hands-on and small group classes were taught in the AMP journal method as well as the AMP journal class from the first semester. Small group and hands-on classes improved more than the AMP journal class suggesting that high level language-rich teaching intervention can help enhance conceptual learning in classes taught by primarily a hands-on or small group approach.