“A Placement at Masada”: Supporting Novice Teachers in the Jewish Court of All Time Project

• In Event: Anne Frank Confronts Queen Isabella: Learning Phenomena in Historical, Cultural, and Social Online Simulation Games

Abstract

Objectives:
This paper first describes the theory and practice of the POOT/JCAT simulation game and for the ensuing studies reported in this symposium. We detail the origins of The Jewish Court of All Time (JCAT) project, and its outgrowth from the Place out of Time (POOT) project, a web-based, trans-historical simulation activity for middle school and high school students that has been has been actively used for the past ten years. Both POOT and JCAT simulations are supported by courses taught at two different universities, in which graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in seminars where their coursework centered on their taking on the role of “mentors” for the project, and working with the secondary school student participants who, like the mentors, portray historical or contemporary figures.

Perspectives
This paper describes the nature of this “work,” situating the multi-level engagement of the college students who must teach “in character” while supporting both an imaginative and an intellectual engagement on the part of their mentees (Suits, 1978; Vygotsky, 1978; Bakhtin, 1981). Being immersed in this work has provided us, as university instructors and project directors, with a unique opportunity to investigate and analyze the various intellectual and pedagogical locations (student, researcher, mentor, classroom teacher, educational analyst) that are designated both by participation in the simulation, and the specific academic criteria and goals of participating classrooms and institutions (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989; Baxter-Magolda, 2001).

Modes of inquiry:
Using an action research lens (Zeichner, 2002), we will describe some of the ways in which we interrogated our own practice, affording us new perspectives on (1) how college students are socialized (King, 1992; King & Kitchener, 1994); (2) how to support and model “reflection-in-action” (Schon, 1983 and 1995; Clarke, 1995); and (3) the special opportunities and challenges presented by character-play as a tool for engaging with the study of history (Bain and Mirel, 1982; Holt, 1995; Wineburg, 2001).

Data Sources:
Data for this study includes participating teachers’ discussions in synchronous and asynchronous online professional development settings, lesson plans, written reflections on our teaching during the 2010-2011 simulations.

Results:
This paper discusses insights we derived from reflections on our teaching and from discussions with classroom teachers, and details crucial changes made in our pedagogy of the mentor seminar the following quarter. We grappled, for example, with tensions related to differing understandings of what was appropriate, “quality” work from our students in the university course, and what was needed from them as mentors in the online space. These tensions framed complex issues for us as instructors, pushing us to re-examine and redefine our understanding of the nature of our pedagogical work, as well as to restructure key elements of the course.

Scholarly significance:
Findings point to the centrality and complexity of communication with the different participant groups in the simulation. This complexity reflects the different learning needs of each cohort and the need for effective scaffolds that can support each cohort. Ensuing pedagogical innovation reveal the importance of assuming an action research inquiry stance on practice.

Authors

• Michael Fahy, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Jeff P. Kupperman, University of Michigan - Flint

• Jeff Stanzler, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor