The Utility of the Delphi Method to Improve School Success of Students with Migrant Background
Creators: name: Rösselet, Stephan
Publisher: name: Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
Year: 2016
Subjects: Forschungsmethoden Schulerfolg Mehrsprachigkeit Delphimethode

description: Objectives: This Delphi study was part of a Swiss inquiry into the development of language competencies of monolingual and multilingual students with a migrant background. Its purpose was to collect information about the effectiveness and feasibility of different interventions aimed at the improvement of cognitive academic language proficiency and school success of such students. Perspectives: Because school success highly depends on language competencies in educational language, lower school success of migrant students is linked to lower educational language competencies (cf. for Switzerland: Imdorf, 2004; Kronig, 2003). Isolated interventions by teachers, and how elaborate they might be, contribute little to the improvement of the situation. Coordinated, well-structured interventions in the following contexts appear to be more fruitful: instruction and teaching; institutional structure and characteristics; cooperation with parents and parental participation; diagnostics, selection and transitions; networking; educational policy. Methods and Data: Two rounds of surveys were conducted with 176 Swiss, German and Austrian experts (scientists, school administrators and teachers), specialized in the fields of language, education and migration. The Delphi method was used as it combines elements of written surveys and group discussions (Häder, 2002) with respondents encouraged to reconsider their answers in light of other respondents' anonymous feedback, the aim of which is to attain consensus between respondents’ judgements. In the first round experts rated the effectiveness and feasibility of 128 selected interventions and could comment on their judgements if they desired. Their answers were analysed with regard to consensus. Expert participants then received feedback on their responses via graphic representations and a short summary of their comments. In the second round they were invited to rate only those interventions which were not answered consensually. Although not all interventions were rated consensually after two rounds, a third round was not realised due to limited time resources of the experts concerned. Results: Answers from both rounds were used to group the selected interventions according to the two dimensions of feasibility and effectiveness, and to build four groups of interventions (high / low feasibility x high / low effectiveness). According to experts' judgements the most important interventions are (1) educational interventions, e.g. individualisation, cooperative learning and literacy education; and (2) institutional improvements, e.g. implementation of integrative measures, sustaining both first and second language, and reforming the selection procedures. Significance: The present study serves as an example of the use of the Delphi method in education research. For complex research issues which are not easily studied in field research, such as effective measures for dealing with diversity in the classroom, the Delphi method can serve as a good alternative. Besides its utility, methodological challenges and possible limitations will be illustrated and brought up for discussion with international partners in this symposium.