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Thirty-four students from a career and technical education high school course focusing on teacher education participated in simulation-based teaching exercises within simSchool. Pre and post Likert-style self-reported appraisals on seven scales in the areas of culturally responsive teaching, empathy and technology attitudes are being gathered from all participants. Preliminary findings revealed that a surprisingly strong relationship exists between culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and cognitive empathy, to the point where empathy can be said to account for more than half of culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. In addition, females were found to be higher on empathy than males. 

Thirty-four students from a career and technical education high school course focusing on teacher education participated in simulation-based teaching exercises within simSchool. Pre and post Likert-style self-reported appraisals on seven scales in the areas of culturally responsive teaching, empathy and technology attitudes are being gathered from all participants. Preliminary findings revealed that a surprisingly strong relationship exists between culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy and cognitive empathy, to the point where empathy can be said to account for more than half of culturally responsive teaching self-efficacy. In addition, females were found to be higher on empathy than males. 

To address the diversity of student differences, educators need to actively recognize and counter patterns of bias in their teaching practices as well as in their classroom environments. The topic is highly relevant to the education field including faculty of educator preparation programs, classroom teachers and administrators. The simulated teaching environment includes research-based outcomes that show improvement in teaching efficacy and culturally diverse teaching practices. The simulation is focused on allowing educators to “practice teaching” in a variety of content areas any time benefitting from the simEquity experience by learning how to change instructional practices based on bias awareness and guided improvement through targeted feedback. Context appropriate recommendations for improvements in equity-based teaching practices will provide participants with the tools needed for reducing implicit bias in instruction. The cycle includes planning instruction, teaching in a simulation, receiving feedback, improving instruction for subsequent simulations and reflecting on the practices that were used with the artificially created students. One strength of using simulations is the objective feedback provided to participants that allow improvements based on actual choices made with each of the simStudents. All participants will have access for any of their colleagues and students to the “Teaching without bias” module for one year.