Bastiaens, T
(Ed.)
Fifty-five (55) K-12 teachers in two US states completed five repetitions of a 15-minute simulated teaching lesson in which six of their 12 simulated students in a class were labeled as having special learning needs while the other six were not labeled. Analysis of three measures of differential focus in instructional attention revealed that educators teaching within the simulator tended to increase attention (p < .05) in the areas where they perceived the greatest needs. That is, they tended to focus increased guidance toward the simulated students that were labeled as having special learning needs. Findings provide credible evidence of the fidelity of the simulated teaching environment as perceived by actual teachers, in that teachers focused actions in the simulator comparable to the manner in which teachers commonly focus guidance in real classrooms, targeting extra assistance where they perceive it is needed. This finding has reconfirmed preliminary indications from a smaller participant pool (n = 40) studied in a previous year and has expanded confirmation of the effect to additional types of special learning needs labels in addition to English Language Learner (ELL).
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