Traditional Rehearsals Versus Virtual Rehearsal Simulations

• In Event: Opportunities and Challenges Associated With Approximations of Practice in Teacher Education Programs

Abstract

Rehearsals are approximations of practice (Grossman et al., 2009) that are designed to engage teacher candidates (TCs) in deliberate practice before enacting within classroom settings. Traditional rehearsal involves peers acting as students as the TC facilitates an activity. These rehearsals allow for concentrated feedback on teaching practices to build the skills and conceptual understanding to develop ambitious teaching. Innovative technologies such as virtual simulation software, Mursion® (developed as TeachLivE™), offer new opportunities to use student avatars in the context of rehearsals. Mathematics education research on rehearsals has typically focused on feedback and procedure (Averill et al., 2016; Kazemi et al., 2016). This work extends the current research by analyzing teaching practice related to rehearsal outcomes in two instructional contexts. The research question guiding this work are:
1) How do TCs who engage in either peer-to-peer or virtual rehearsal simulation (VRS) compare in their development of elicitation skills within the rehearsal episodes?
2) How do TCs who engage in either peer-to-peer or VRS compare in their application of elicitation skills in authentic teaching contexts?
This work explores the use of eliciting strategies (how teachers bring out student-thinking) in rehearsals of number talks (short mathematical lessons) within VRS as compared to traditional rehearsals. The participants were 60 TCs enrolled in a Grade 3-6 Mathematics Methods course (22 in control; 38 in comparison group) at a university teacher-preparation program in the southeastern United States. The control group led two number talks within peer-to-peer rehearsals while the comparison group led two number talks within the VRS; all participants then led one number talk within their elementary classroom.
Eliciting strategies were measured by coding transcripts of number talks using the Analyzing Teacher Moves Framework (Correnti et al., 2015; Scherrer & Stein, 2013). The framework served as a tool for examining how a teacher orchestrates discussions in the classroom by categorizing teacher moves (i.e., teacher’s comments/questions), and considering the contexts of those moves. Each teacher move is broadly categorized as initiating moves (e.g., launch, literal), which are moves a teacher uses to start a discussion of a problem/topic, and rejoinder moves (uptake, connection), which are moves that show a teacher is hearing students’ responses and continuing the discussion with student ideas at the forefront. The codes were preliminarily analyzed based on the frequency of teacher moves by using (non-pooled) two-sample, t-tests to compare changes in the control and comparison groups’ uses of eliciting strategies.
Similarities in development between the groups presents evidence that virtual simulations have the potential to provide comparable contexts for rehearsals, while specific, significant differences between use of rejoinder moves in the classroom context warrants further examination of the contexts and patterns. When in the classroom setting TCs in the VRS seem to position students more actively in the discussion. This unique look at VRS opens up conversation for how VRS can be used to provide TC with opportunities to practice in situations that are not afforded in traditional rehearsal contexts and how this impacts classroom enactment.

Author

• Carrie W. Lee, East Carolina University