Exploring the Ways to Support Responsive Teaching in Classroom Simulations

• In Event: Exploring the Impact of Online Learning, Collaboration, and Simulation in Teacher Education

Abstract

This paper reports on the ways in which classroom simulations that use virtual avatars can support pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) development of responsive teaching skills. Results indicate that classroom simulations provide opportunities for PSTs to provide meaningful clarification to avatar students and to explore relevant content with avatar students. PSTs react to these opportunities in varying ways, including not engaging with student thinking, eliciting student thinking and helping avatar students to build on their thinking toward increasingly complex ideas.

Authors

• Margaret Walton, University of Maryland - College Park

• Sarah Henson-Darko, University of Maryland - College Park