Characterizing preservice teachers’ in-the-moment interpretations of student resources: Leveraging AI-supported virtual reality

• In Event: Teaching Practices and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Teachers’ capacity to support learners in constructive, inquiry-based learning is grounded in moment-to-moment noticing, interpreting, and responding to student resources. For preservice teachers (PSTs), however, interpreting, or making sense of diverse student resources, can be particularly challenging. Employing a virtual reality (VR)-based, artificial intelligence (AI)-supported teaching simulation, this proposal aims to characterize how PSTs interpret virtual students’ resources in the moment, and how such interpretations support responsive teaching. The findings identified seven epistemic and emotional interpretations PSTs engaged in and highlighted the critical role that these interpretations play in shaping responsive teaching practices. These interpretations can serve as a framework that supports teacher educators in understanding and supporting how PSTs learn to reason about and respond to student thinking.

Authors

• Nuodi Zhang, Florida State University

• Fengfeng Ke, University of Maryland

• Chih-Pu Dai, Texas A&M University