UCLA

This study examined a novel learning environment in one kindergarten classroom with90% Spanish-speaking ELLs. The design combined the interactive whiteboard platform and a student-centered, constructionist pedagogy to structure cooperative tasks, academic language and semiotic formations through the engineering design process within a studio-based learning design. The interactive whiteboard platform consisted of an array of digital and non-digital collaboration tools specifically arranged to support semi-autonomous collaboration, communication, and construction of representational artifacts. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential, if any, that this design may have in advancing access to academic oral language development in STEM-related fields to ELLs.