Record Details

Berkeley Social Contexts of Learning Study, 1981-1991

Harvard Dataverse (Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CCAFS, CIAT, IFPRI, IRRI and WorldFish)

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Field Value
 
Title Berkeley Social Contexts of Learning Study, 1981-1991
 
Identifier https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/DTVXYM
 
Creator Hansen, Donald A.
 
Publisher Harvard Dataverse
 
Description The purpose of this study was to examine social contexts of learning in bilingual classrooms. Researchers examined the perceptions of students, school faculty/staff, and parents to find what influences learning for bilingual students. The study contains two waves, the first from 1981-1983 and the second from 1989-1991.




The first wave involved 265 mostly limited English speaking male and female students in the 2nd and 5th grades of eight elementary schools in three separate school districts from the San Francisco Bay area. One-hundred seventeen of the students were children of Mexican immigrants in predominantly Spanish-speaking homes, 46 were children of Chinese immigrants in predominantly Cantonese-speaking homes, and the rest were mostly African-Americans living in predominantly English-speaking homes. Many of the parents and school staff for these children were also participants in the study.



The first wave was conducted by over 50 researchers and was grounded in classroom observation. The researchers collected test-retest-retest scores on standardized reading tests (SDRT) to assess rates of summer and school-year language learning while controlling for previous achievement. Family, teachers, principals and students were interviewed; questioning was conducted in English, Spanish, or Cantonese, depending upon the needs of the respondent. Classroom observation focused on students' learning strategies and teachers' lesson tactics, yielding 200 hours of classroom interaction documented on videotape and over 1600 total hours of classroom observations.




The second wave was a follow-up of the Spanish-speaking students. School and administrative records were used to analyze students' schooling careers. Seventy-seven of these students were located for follow-up; two Spanish-speaking graduated students interviewed people who knew the 40 subjects who were not otherwise accounted for in the second wave.



The Murray Research Archive holds original record paper data, and audiotape data from the study (paper data have been digitized and are available for online access.)



Audio Data Availability Note: This study contains audio data that have been digitized. There are 1903 audio files available.
 
Subject Social Sciences
 
Contributor Henry A. Murray Research Archive
 
Type longitudinal, field study