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Responsive teaching, a pedagogical approach that foregrounds and builds instruction on student ideas, requires teachers to attend to and build on student resources. However, teachers’ interpretations of student resources, especially during live teaching, remain understudied. In this study, we examined in-the-moment interpretations, teachers’ real-time sense-making of and reflection on students’ epistemic and emotional resources, and explored how teachers’ in-themoment interpretations can support their responsive teaching talk moves and knowledge. Employing a convergent mixed-methods research design, we designed and implemented a generative artificial intelligence (AI)-supported virtual simulation as a pedagogical sandbox for 40 preservice teachers (PSTs) to practice teaching with virtual students, interpret student resources, and act on these interpretations in real time. Linear regression analysis was conducted and found that PSTs’ in-the-moment interpretations are significant predictors of their responsive teaching talk moves and knowledge. Qualitative thematic analysis identified themes that corroborated and extended the findings of the quantitative component. Implications for teacher education and simulation design are discussed.
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This content will become publicly available on June 10, 2026
Examining How In-The-Moment Interpretations of Student Disciplinary Thinking and Emotions Support Responsive Teaching: A study in AI-Supported Simulation
This mixed-methods study examined an AI-supported virtual simulation and explored the role of preservice teachers’ (PSTs) in-the-moment interpretations of virtual students’ resources (both epistemic and emotional) in their responsive teaching practices. Thirty-three preservice science and mathematics teachers participated in the study. Linear regression analysis results revealed that PSTs’ interpretative acts can significantly predict their responsive teaching practices. Qualitative analysis corroborated that purposive interpretation enabled PSTs to estimate students’ learning states and teaching scenarios as a whole. It was also found that PSTs struggled to enact interpretations, pointing to future research directions.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2110777
- PAR ID:
- 10653264
- Publisher / Repository:
- International Society of Learning Sciences
- Date Published:
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1334 to 1338
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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