Approximating Teaching: Using Simulations as a Platform for Understanding and Improving Instructional Quality

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

For teacher preparation, simulations can create "field-like" spaces to try out teaching practices with feedback and support from teacher educators. Many preparation programs use different forms of simulation, but we know little about how they are incorporated across content areas and teaching practices, or the extent to which they are used to surface and disrupt patterns of inequities in school. Further, the field knows little about impacts of their use. This session highlights four approaches to supporting high-quality teaching through using simulations to either understand and/or promote the development of instructional practice. Presenters will highlight the goals and content of the simulations and the theory for using simulations to assess and/or bolster TCs’ learning.

Sub Unit

• Division K - Teaching and Teacher Education / Division K - Section 09: Teacher Education Innovation and Policy

Chair

• Julie Jackson Cohen, University of Virginia

Papers

• The Effects of Coaching on Candidate Performance in Digitally Mediated Simulations - Julie Jackson Cohen, University of Virginia; Emily Wiseman, University of Virginia

• The Same, but Different: Standardizing Opportunities for Learning in Live-Actor Simulations - Elizabeth Anne Self, Vanderbilt University

• Learning Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching in and From Simulations - Meghan M. Shaughnessy, Boston University; Timothy A. Boerst, University of Michigan

• Using Performance Assessments to Simulate and Provide Feedback for Key Teaching Skills - Geoffrey C. Phelps, Educational Testing Service

Discussants

• Hala N. Ghousseini, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Ellen Mcintyre, The University of Tennessee