Exploring How Preservice Teachers Build Digital Equity in a Digital Clinical Simulation

• In Event: Preparing 21st-Century Teachers With Digital Clinical Simulations: Advancing Equity and Innovation in Teacher Education

Abstract

Despite the rapid expansion of access to technology in U.S. schools and communities (Connect K-12, 2022), research consistently shows that minoritized students learn with technology less frequently, and in less impactful ways, than their more privileged peers (U.S. Department of Education, 2017, 2024). As a result, many individuals are emerging from school ill-equipped to succeed in a contemporary society shaped by technological innovation (Reich, 2019). To address this phenomenon, experts have called for increased teacher preparation in building digital equity in the curriculum (e.g., Hiefield & Carter, 2021; U.S. Department of Education, 2016), which entails engaging all students in frequent and high-quality learning opportunities with technology across the curriculum, regardless of their race, socio-economic status, and ability (Ravi, 2020).

The present study seeks to address this call by investigating how a digital clinical simulation can support novice teachers’ acquisition of the knowledge and skills involved in building digital equity in the curriculum. The study occurred in an asynchronous technology integration course at a large, southeastern institution in the U.S. Twenty-six PSTs engaged in two sessions (i.e., pre- and post-course) of a digital clinical simulation in Teacher Moments, where they were tasked with designing and modifying a technology-integrated lesson for a group of diverse students. Participants’ written responses from the simulations and subsequent debrief activities were thematically analyzed to identify (1) similarities and differences in their lesson design and modification approaches between sessions, (2) factors that primarily guided their instructional decision-making in the simulations, and (3) ways in which the simulations and debrief activities contributed to their learning about digital equity.

Findings showed that in the pre-course simulation, more than half of PSTs struggled to build digital equity in their lessons, as their decision-making was primarily guided by a limited, access-focused understanding of digital equity and an overreliance on the apprenticeship of observation (i.e., their experiences learning with technology as K-12 students). By comparison, in the post-course simulation, all PSTs succeeded at building digital equity in their lessons, as their decision-making was primarily guided by a more comprehensive, usage-focused understanding of digital equity and the knowledge they had acquired during their related coursework. Findings also showed that while the post-course simulation and debrief activity afforded PSTs valuable opportunities to hone core instructional practices related to building digital equity, the pre-course version of these activities may have limited, or even hindered, PSTs’ learning. This study has potential to increase knowledge and practice at this underexplored intersection of teacher education and educational technology by offering insight into how digital clinical simulations can be leveraged to prepare novice teachers to integrate technology in the curriculum more equitably.

Author

• Lauren Weisberg, University of Texas - Arlington