Current developments in Slovenia and globally indicate an increasing trend of family migrations, as well as increasing immigrant populations in schools. One of the great challenges of educators is how to provide quality instruction for these children, accommodating their educational needs and goals, and still being effective at teaching. The main purpose of this doctoral dissertation was to create and design didactic dimensions of quality instruction for immigrant students. These didactic dimensions would serve as an example of effective methods and techniques used in immigrant students instruction. A synthesis of the existing evidence in the form of a literature review served as a theoretical background for the current study. First, we evaluated factors which play a pivotal role in immigrant children's integration into a school community. Next, we presented accommodation and modification methods for instruction and factors influencing immigrant children's academic achievement. A particular emphasis was placed on the impact of immigrant children's first and second language for their academic success. Then, we analysed methods, techniques, didactic strategies, and learning stages of instruction, focusing on individual differences of immigrant children. We also reviewed two recent program models of immigrant students instruction. Finally, we discussed the role of educators, their views toward instruction for immigrant children, and the influence of their professional development on affecting work with these children.
The empirical section of the study was twofold. First, didactic dimensions were examined via questionnaire, developed for the purpose of this study, in a group of 333 in-service elementary school teachers from Slovenia, and a group of 172 pre-service teachers studying at the School of Education, University of Ljubljana. Results from the questionnaire sought to answer four research questions (RQ). The first RQ analysed in-service and pre-service teachers' views on academic instruction targeted for immigrant children. In addition, the first RQ answered the question of the relation between teachers' experience working with immigrant children and teachers' views towards immigrant children instruction. The second RQ evaluated the frequency of teachers using different methods and techniques for the teaching immigrant populations. Moreover, the second RQ attempted to evaluate which methods and techniques teachers find most beneficial and efficient when working with immigrant populations. The third RQ analysed differences in views towards academic instruction targeted for immigrant children among teachers with differences in terms of their leadership aspects, years of working experience, and level of professional development. We also evaluated whether there were differences in views towards instruction between teachers working with immigrant children and those with no such experience. Finally, the fourth RQ sought to answer the following questions: Do Slovene in-service teachers feel competent enough to work with these populations; Are they familiarized with the main cultural and linguistic features of the different immigrant populations they serve so that they can help immigrant children academically; What is the association between teachers' experiences working with immigrant children and their professional development; What type of knowledge acquired during undergraduate studies, in work, or life experience have been beneficial for working with immigrant populations? In the second part of the empirical section, we elaborated further on the didactic dimensions to improve the quality of instruction for immigrant children. In particular, we focused on a group of in-service elementary teachers working with many immigrant children. Moreover, we evaluated educators' needs, wishes, and experiences when working with immigrant populations.
In our research, we have discovered that in-service elementary school teachers from Slovenia who have already experienced teaching immigrant students wish that the system would provide some kind of organized integration of immigrant students and would offer them help by organizing different courses, such as learning the Slovene language (which is not regulated by law). Teachers also wish that there would be fewer students in classes in which immigrant students are involved, because our teachers would like to give the immigrant students more attention while helping them overcome their learning problems. We have also discovered that in-service elementary school teachers mostly adapt their teaching to immigrant students by devoting their attention to the students’ integration into a group of peers, which is called social-educational aspect of immigrant students in class. These findings are related to the results obtained in this research. The research has shown that in-service elementary school teachers from Slovenia believe that (in relation to teaching immigrant students) they are most qualified for enhancing the cooperation between students, their parents and teachers.
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