Changing Practice: Impact of a National Institute on Foreign Language for the K-6 Level of Instruction Teacher Preparation

Purpose:
The purpose of this project was to assess the effectiveness of the Teacher Educator Partnership institute as a model for fostering change in elementary school foreign language teacher preparation programs.

Project Personnel:
Mari Kemis, Program Coordinator, Research Institute for Studies in Education, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
Kelli Jo Kerry Moran, Coordinator of Institutional Research, Eastern Arizona College, Thatcher, Arizona
Marcia Harmon Rosenbusch, Director, National K-12 Foreign Language Resource Center, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa

Overview:
The almost 10% increase in elementary school foreign language programs in the U.S. from 1987 to 1997 resulted in a serious shortage of professionally-prepared teachers for these programs. The Teacher Educator Partnership Institute is designed to provide professional preparation in elementary school foreign language education to teacher educators at colleges and universities who have little or no experience in early foreign language teaching. This study investigated the impact of this institute on the preparation of elementary school foreign language teachers at teacher educators' colleges and universities.

Procedures:
Participants in the research were twenty-seven teacher educators from institutions of higher education across the nation during the summers of 1994 and 1995. Institute participants who were K-6 foreign language teachers were not included in this study, nor were participants in the 1997 and 1998 institutes.
Three survey instruments and a telephone interview of the 27 teacher educators provide the data for this study. The survey instruments include a needs assessment and a pre- and post-institute survey. Each teacher educator was also asked to take part in a 20-to-30-minute interview by telephone.
Results of survey instruments and telephone interviews with the teacher educator participants indicate that the number of sites that prepare teachers for the early level of instruction did increase and that the institute resulted in many additional positive benefits. The results of this study where published in 2000 in Foreign Language Annuals 33 (3), pp. 305-319.