skip to main content


Title: Learning to Teach: How a Simulated Learning Environment Can Connect Theory to Practice in General and Special Education Educator Preparation Programs
Abstract: Educator preparation programs have moved away from o ering interest-based courses that prepare a teacher candidate on a more surface level and have opted to integrate more authentic experiences with technology that are infused into coursework. This research study focused on redesigning key courses in both the general and special education graduate-level educator preparation programs (EPPs) to infuse learning experiences through a simulated learning environment (Mursion) to help bridge teacher candidates’ coursework and field experiences, o ering them robust experience with high leverage practices and technology that increases their own competency. Data from this study demonstrated that preservice teacher candidate work within the Mursion simulated learning environment increased use of high leverage practices related to strategic teaching, collaboration, differentiation, and providing feedback. Implications for instructional coaching, microteaching, repeated practice, and closing the research to practice gap are discussed.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1817519
NSF-PAR ID:
10279578
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Education sciences
Volume:
10
Issue:
7
ISSN:
2227-7102
Page Range / eLocation ID:
184
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Recently scholars have advocated for using teachers’ practice as a site for teacher learning. The recent proliferation of online, digital spaces, including simulated classrooms, has paved the way for novel approaches within practice-based teacher education. Yet, limited research has investigated the extent to which and how the use of online, simulated teaching experiences promote teacher learning of core teaching practices. The purpose of this study was to examine whether and how integrating simulated teaching experiences into teacher education coursework impacts preservice teacher (PST) learning. Findings showed that the use of simulated teaching experiences within elementary teacher education methods courses resulted in evidence of statistically significant growth in PSTs’ ability to engage in one core teaching practice: facilitating argumentation-focused discussions.

     
    more » « less
  2. As K-12 engineering education becomes more ubiquitous in the U.S, increased attention has been paid to preparing the heterogeneous group of in-service teachers who have taken on the challenge of teaching engineering. Standards have emerged for professional development along with research on teacher learning in engineering that call for teachers to facilitate and support engineering learning environments. Given that many teachers may not have experienced engineering practice calls have been made to engage teaches K-12 teachers in the “doing” of engineering as part of their preparation. However, there is a need for research studying more specific nature of the “doing” and the instructional implications for engaging teachers in “doing” engineering. In general, to date, limited time and constrained resources necessitate that many professional development programs for K-12 teachers to engage participants in the same engineering activities they will enact with their students. While this approach supports teachers’ familiarity with curriculum and ability to anticipate students’ ideas, there is reason to believe that these experiences may not be authentic enough to support teachers in developing a rich understanding of the “doing” of engineering. K-12 teachers are often familiar with the materials and curricular solutions, given their experiences as adults, which means that engaging in the same tasks as their students may not be challenging enough to develop their understandings about engineering. This can then be consequential for their pedagogy: In our prior work, we found that teachers’ linear conceptions of the engineering design process can limit them from recognizing and supporting student engagement in productive design practices. Research on the development of engineering design practices with adults in undergraduate and professional engineering settings has shown significant differences in how adults approach and understand problems. Therefore, we conjectured that engaging teachers in more rigorous engineering challenges designed for adult engineering novices would more readily support their developing rich understandings of the ways in which professional engineers move through the design process. We term this approach meaningful engineering for teachers, and it is informed by work in science education that highlights the importance of learning environments creating a need for learners to develop and engage in disciplinary practices. We explored this approach to teachers’ professional learning experiences in doing engineering in an online graduate program for in-service teachers in engineering education at Tufts University entitled the Teacher Engineering Education Program (teep.tufts.edu). In this exploratory study, we asked: 1. How did teachers respond to engaging in meaningful engineering for teachers in the TEEP program? 2. What did teachers identify as important things they learned about engineering content and pedagogy? This paper focuses on one theme that emerged from teachers’ reflections. Our analysis found that teachers reported that meaningful engineering supported their development of epistemic empathy (“the act of understanding and appreciating someone's cognitive and emotional experience within an epistemic activity”) as a result of their own affective experiences in doing engineering that required significant iteration as well as using novel robotic materials. We consider how epistemic empathy may be an important aspect of teacher learning in K-12 engineering education and the potential implications for designing engineering teacher education. 
    more » « less
  3. This work explores the experiences of administrators supporting teachers in the [redacted] program which emphasizes broadening participation in engineering at the high school level. In order to understand how efforts to broaden participation can leverage multiple levels of the school system, this work sought to identify the experiences of administrators. Two rounds of convenience samples of administrators in public and independent schools occurred in spring and fall of 2022. This recruitment led to two focus groups (with both public and independent school administrators) and a single administrator interview (independent school). During these conversations, administrators were asked to reflect on the implementation of the [redacted] program at their school, their personal experiences with this process, and barriers or suggestions in expanding this program both locally and more broadly. The transcripts of these interviews and focus groups were analyzed using descriptive coding (Saldaña, 2014) by two researchers. The researchers then met and compared codes to ensure inter-rater reliability with a percent agreement above 90%. During this process the codes were categorized and then emergent themes were identified. The findings indicate that administrators have a range of personal experience with implementing this engineering program, and that often these experiences were reported as a benefit to the entire school. For instance, administrators often referred to connections made to local universities by or as a result of the program, which then served as a positive outcome for the school at large. This suggests that a multifaceted approach to implementing engineering courses at the high school level which includes curriculum as well as human connections is seen as a benefit by administrators. Administrators also refer to the coursework and teacher actions as supporting the goal of broadening participation by speaking about specific engineering projects that engage a variety of learners, mostly through the type of project employed within the course. Finally, the administrators identified potential barriers to implementing engineering programs on their campus, with most barriers relating to teacher staffing issues, such as the need to engage in professional development to train these teachers externally. The themes that emerged from these various administrators perspectives provide an understanding of how to approach broadening participation through leveraging the role of administrators and how to encourage communication within the school system to create more access for students both to enroll in the engineering courses and to see a future self within engineering. 
    more » « less
  4. This research paper describes a study of elementary teacher learning in an online graduate program in engineering education for in-service teachers. While the existing research on teachers in engineering focuses on their disciplinary understandings and beliefs (Hsu, Cardella, & Purzer, 2011; Martin, et al., 2015; Nadelson, et al., 2015; Van Haneghan, et al., 2015), there is increasing attention to teachers' pedagogy in engineering (Capobianco, Delisi, & Radloff, 2018). In our work, we study teachers' pedagogical sense-making and reflection, which, we argue, is critical for teaching engineering design. This study takes place in [blinded] program, in which teachers take four graduate courses over fifteen months. The program was designed to help teachers not only learn engineering content, but also shift their thinking and practice to be more responsive to their students. Two courses focus on pedagogy, including what it means to learn engineering and instructional approaches to support this learning. These courses consist of four main elements, in which teachers: 1) Read data-rich engineering education articles to reflect on learning engineering; 2) Participate in online video clubs, looking at classroom videos of students’ engineering and commenting on what they notice; 3) Conduct interviews with learners about the mechanism of a pull-back car; and 4) Plan and teach engineering lessons, collecting and analyzing video from their classrooms. In the context of this program, we ask: what stances do teachers take toward learning and teaching engineering design? What shifts do we observe in their stances? We interviewed teachers at the start of the program and after each course. In addition to reflecting on their learning and teaching, teachers watched videos of students’ engineering and discussed what they saw as relevant for teaching engineering. We informally compared summaries from previous interviews to get a sense of changes in how participants talked about engineering, how they approached teaching engineering, and what they noticed in classroom videos. Through this process, we identified one teacher to focus on for this paper: Alma is a veteran 3rd-5th grade science teacher in a rural, racially-diverse public school in the southeastern region of the US. We then developed content logs of Alma's interviews and identified emergent themes. To refine these themes, we looked for confirming and disconfirming evidence in the interviews and in her coursework in the program. We coded each interview for these themes and developed analytic memos, highlighting where we saw variability and stability in her stances and comparing across interviews to describe shifts in Alma's reasoning. It was at this stage that we narrowed our focus to her stances toward the engineering design process (EDP). In this paper, we describe and illustrate shifts we observed in Alma's reasoning, arguing that she exhibited dramatic shifts in her stances toward teaching and learning the EDP. At the start of the program, she was stable in treating the EDP as a series of linear steps that students and engineers progress through. After engaging and reflecting on her own engineering in the first course, she started to express a more fluid stance when talking more abstractly about the EDP but continued to take it up as a linear process in her classroom teaching. By the end of the program, Alma exhibited a growing stability across contexts in her stance toward the EDP as a fluid set of overlapping practices that students and engineers could engage in. 
    more » « less
  5. There is a shortage of research examining Black male middle school students’ early experiences, content and career exposure, and mentoring in STEM programs at HBCUs. Using Harper’s Anti-Deficit Achievement Framework, this research examined the asset-based pedagogy used to teach middle school Black boys (n=169) using survey data from a more extensive mixed-methods study of STEM programs at HBCUs. Results show that Black boys perceived the instructors and mentors incorporated a relatively high level of engagement and pedagogical practice using transactional strategies (meaningful learning, learning community, teacher student relationship quality). The more Black boys perceived meaningful connections in their lessons, the higher teacher student relationship quality and learning community ratings. The use of the three transactional instructional strategies resulted in Black boys' perceived use of critical thinking in the STEM learning context. As a result of participating in the STEM programs at HBCUs, Black boys significantly increased in STEM-based academic efficacy, specifically in technology. Implications for teachers, teacher educators, and program mentors and instructors in STEM spaces for Black boys are discussed. 
    more » « less