Impacting Student Vocabulary Outcomes Through Multimedia Professional Development

As students enter upper elementary and middle school, content area vocabulary terms become more prevalent and complex. While some students can learn terms from traditional methods (e.g., lecture, textbook) students with disabilities and others who struggle need additional support. Evidence-based explicit instructional practices and multimedia can help vocabulary teaching and learning. Using a quasi-experimental design, we examined the impact of the Content Acquisition Podcast-Professional Development (CAP-PD) on teacher implementation of evidence-based vocabulary practices and vocabulary knowledge for students with and without disabilities in inclusive science classrooms. Results included a combined sample from two sister studies of n = 21 ( n = 7 business as usual [BAU]) teachers and n = 1365 ( n = 525) students. Treatment teachers used target practices with higher quality and quantity compared to BAU. Students, including those with disabilities, in treatment classrooms, performed better on measures of science vocabulary knowledge compared to peers in the BAU classrooms. Teacher professional development implications surrounding evidence-based vocabulary practices are discussed.