Virtual professional development for enhancing teacher leaders’ linguistic competency in teaching

We provided virtual professional development (VPD) via Massive Open Online Professional Individualized Independent Learning (MOOPIL, ©2022), which is focused on increasing the instructional capacity of teacher leaders related to their students’ language development. Without a transformation of practice based on the new learning, there is little to no improvement in practice. Data were collected from ninety-nine teacher leaders. For data collection, questionnaires and retrospective reflections used in VPD were used. Quantitative data were analyzed using pre- and post-assessments and a paired-samples t-test to examine statistical differences in participants’ knowledge gains across MOOPILs. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant knowledge gains across all MOOPILs, with a large effect size (Cohen’s d = 1.23), indicating the strong impact of VPD participation. For the qualitative analysis, we collected data via open-ended questions in the questionnaire and the participants’ written reflections, which were analyzed using constant comparative methods. The participants’ responses were coded according to themes for identifying patterns. We found three major themes related to what participants perceived to be effective because of their participation in this VPD: (a) language needs of emergent bilingual students (EBs), (b) teachers’ awareness of language competency, and (c) responsive teaching. After reporting the findings, we argued for raising teachers’ awareness of linguistic competency using VPD MOOPILs.