Exploring Preservice Teachers\u27 Affective Response to Disruptive Student Behavior in an Immersive Simulation Classroom

This mixed methods study investigated changes in preservice teachers\u27 affective response to disruptive student behavior within the TeachLivE, immersive simulation classroom. Preservice teachers completed two simulation teaching sessions, during which they were exposed to five different disruptive student behavior events in each. All teaching sessions were recorded and post-processed using iMotions Affectiva Affdex software to collect data on preservice teachers\u27 emotion expression and valence during their teaching experiences. At the end of each teaching session, participants completed a self-report survey on their level of stress. Simulated teaching sessions were followed-up with video stimulated recall sessions where participants reflected on their feelings during the simulation. The goal of this research was to examine changes in preservice teachers\u27 affective response to stress, with repeated exposure to disruptive student behavior, to determine if it had a desensitization effect, potentially increasing emotional regulation ability and decreasing negative emotional responses. Descriptive statistics were used to examine differences in emotional valence by disruptive student events and teaching sessions. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to examine if mean differences existed in self-reported stress within and between teaching sessions. Additional qualitative analysis of video stimulated recall sessions was conducted using thematic analysis. Analysis revealed minimal difference in preservice teachers\u27 positive or negative emotional valence in response to disruptive student behavior events within and between teaching sessions. There was a statistically significant change in self-reported stress from the first simulated teaching session to the second. Analysis of video stimulated recall reflections revealed themes of cognitive dissonance, behavior-induced stress, and difficulty with virtual behavior management

Immersive virtual reality and education: a study into the effectiveness of using this technology with preservice teachers.

Immersive virtual reality (IVR) is a rapidly advancing technology utilized across varying education fields for learning and educational applications. IVR provides the capabilities of computer simulations and embodied cognition experiences through a hands-on activity, making it a natural step to improve learning. Creating educational applications in IVR for use with students and preservice teachers could be a laborious and costly endeavor and require teacher belief in its effectiveness, so research is essential to investigate whether these applications are useful in advancing prekindergarten through Grade 12 (P-12) student learning. Research in this field is new, limited, and practically void of its use in P-12 learning environments. This inquiry expanded upon the literature on IVR technology in education and preservice teacher use of technology. Specifically, the purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of IVR technology on preservice teachers through an experience focused on the American Civil Rights Movement, specifically on knowledge attainment, lesson planning effectiveness, and motivation for future use in their instructional practice. Participants were 21 elementary preservice teachers in a diverse metropolitan university. Results indicated participants in the IVR group significantly increased scores on a content test, reported engagement with the experience, and indicated likelihood to use IVR with their future students

Designing personalised, authentic and collaborative learning with mobile devices: Confronting the challenges of remote teaching during a pandemic.

This article offers teachers a digital pedagogical framework, research-inspired and underpinned by socio-cultural theory, to guide the design of personalised, authentic and collaborative learning scenarios for students using mobile devices in remote learning settings during this pandemic. It provides a series of freely available online resources underpinned by our framework, including a mobile learning toolkit, a professional learning app, and robust, validated surveys for evaluating tasks. Finally, it presents a set of evidence-based principles for effective innovative teaching with mobile devices

Research-Informed Teaching in a Global Pandemic: "Opening up" Schools to Research

The teacher-research agenda has become a significant consideration for policy and professional development in a number of countries. Encouraging research-based teacher education programmes remains an important goal, where teachers are able to effectively utilize educational research as part of their work in school settings and to reflect on and enhance their professional development. In the last decade, teacher research has grown in importance across the three i’s of the teacher learning continuum: initial, induction and in-service teacher education. This has been brought into even starker relief with the global spread of COVID-19, and the enforced and emergency, wholesale move to digital education. Now, perhaps more than ever, teachers need the perspective and support of research-led practice, particularly in how to effectively use Internet technologies to mediate and enhance learning, teaching and assessment online, and new blended modalities for education that must be physically distant. The aim of this paper is to present a number of professional development open educational systems which exist or are currently being developed to support teachers internationally, to engage with, use and do research. Exemplification of the opening up of research to schools and teachers is provided in the chapter through reference to the European Union-funded Erasmus + project, BRIST: Building Research Infrastructures for School Teachers. BRIST is developing technology to coordinate and support teacher-research at a European level

Classroom VR: un juego en RV para mejorar las capacidades comunicativas de profesores de secundaria

Trabajo de fin de grado del Grado en Ingeniería Informática, Facultad de Informática UCM, Departamento de Ingeniería del Software e Inteligencia Artificial, Curso 2019/2020Según los informes de prácticas de capacitación de los futuros maestros de educación secundaria, existen importantes deficiencias en las aptitudes de comunicación, necesarias para dirigir adecuadamente una clase. A pesar de la existencia de módulos relacionados con la comunicación en los maestros de enseñanza, no hay un aprendizaje real en esta área, y los estudiantes (los futuros profesores) expresan su temor cuando se trata de manejar una clase. Actualmente, la realidad virtual está presente en diferentes campos, como la medicina, la ingeniería, las humanidades, etc. Sus características (en particular la relativa a la creación de un entorno seguro, su ubicuidad y su alta capacidad de inmersión) la convierten en una tecnología ideal para la formación de habilidades de comunicación. Paralelamente, en los últimos diez años, los videojuegos han demostrado su eficacia como herramientas de aprendizaje, solos o combinados con otras estrategias pedagógicas. Por estas razones, consideramos la siguiente hipótesis: La realidad virtual en combinación con los videojuegos es, por un lado, un entorno eficaz para simular situaciones realistas relacionadas con la enseñanza secundaria y, por otro, un entorno ideal para practicar y aprender habilidades de comunicación para el aula. Teniendo esto en cuenta, hemos creado un entorno virtual que sirve como herramienta de formación para los futuros profesores de secundaria, para mejorar sus habilidades de comunicación y acostumbrarse a una clase real. Simula una clase de secundaria con estudiantes y funciona como un videojuego. Los estudiantes virtuales simulan el comportamiento de los estudiantes reales en el aula. Los futuros profesores empiezan el juego delante de la clase, como en la mayoría de las escuelas secundarias. La herramienta establece el fondo del juego, ofreciendo un contexto completo, acciones o comportamientos previos (por ejemplo, dos estudiantes han estado peleando toda la semana anterior). Después, el usuario tiene que reaccionar como en una situación real, manejando situaciones complicadas. Nuestro videojuego analiza en tiempo real el comportamiento del usuario (tono de voz, distancia entre el usuario y el o los estudiantes problemáticos y detección de vocabulario asertivo o negativo) y reacciona a través de los propios estudiantes, es decir, ofreciendo un comportamiento realista a las acciones del usuario. Somos optimistas sobre las posibilidades de nuestra herramienta en la formación de los profesores, ya que evita las costosas y complicadas prácticas logísticas en entornos reales. Los expertos consultados coinciden en el valor añadido que esta herramienta puede ofrecer a las prácticas en escuelas reales. El videojuego ofrece el entorno perfecto para aprender y comprender cómo manejar situaciones estresantes a través de una comunicación efectiva antes de enfrentarse a estudiantes reales.According to the reports of training practices from future secondaryschool teachers, there are significant shortcomings in the communication skills required to properly manage a class. Despite the existence of modules related to communication in the educational masters of teaching staff, there is no real learning in this area, and students (the future teachers) express their fear when it comes to dealing with a class. Currently, virtual reality is present in different fields, such as medicine, engineering, humanities, etc. Its characteristics (in particular the one concerning the creation of a safe environment, its ubiquity, and its high immersion capacity) turn it into an ideal technology for training communication skills. In parallel, in the last ten years, video games have proven their effectiveness as learning tools, alone or combined with other pedagogical strategies. For these reasons, we consider the following hypothesis: Virtual reality in combination with video games is, on the one hand, an effective environment for simulating realistic situations related to secondary education, and, on the other, an ideal environment to practice and learn communication skills for the classroom. Taking this into account, we have created a virtual environment that serves as a training tool for future secondary-school teachers, to improve their communication skills and get used to a real class. It simulates a secondary-school class with students and works as a video game. The virtual students work by simulating behaviors of real students in the classroom. Future teachers start the game in front of the class as in most secondary schools. The tool sets the game background, offering the complete context, actions, or previous behaviors (i.e., two students have been fighting all over the previous week). After, the user has to react as in a real situation, managing complicated situations. Our video game analyses in real-time the user’s behavior (voice tone, the distance between the user and the problematic student or students and detection of assertive or negative vocabulary) and reacts through the students themselves, i.e., offering realistic behavior to the user’s actions. We are optimistic about the possibilities of our tool on the teachers’training since it avoids the expensive and logistical complicated real environments practices. The experts consulted agree on the added value that this tool can offer to practices in real schools. The video game offers the perfect environment to learn and understand how to manage stressful situations through effective communication before facing real students.Depto. de Ingeniería de Software e Inteligencia Artificial (ISIA)Fac. de InformáticaTRUEunpu

Implicit Emotion in Decision-Making: Examining Emotional State Differences in Educational Leaders When Engaged in a Special Education Computer Simulation

The researcher investigated 17 participants, ten novices\u27 and seven experts\u27, scores of facial emotion and decision-making while engaged in a special education simulated case conference, SchoolSims. Educational leaders\u27 facial emotions during decision intervals were examined to determine if differences existed between novice and expert computer evidence scores of decision-making and facial emotion. Results indicated no significant differences between groups, but mean evidence scores of joy, surprise, anger, and disgust were expressed at higher levels by novice leaders. While expert leaders\u27 scores of facial emotion were expressed less frequently scores of each emotion remained close to the group mean as indicated by standard deviation scores. Implications to identified facial emotion and decision-making differences provide initial exploratory findings in potential differences between novice and expert leaders\u27 decision-making and emotional response when leading a simulated conference. This study created a structure for use of simulation and online facial tracking in an online environment. Further investigation of education leaders moving from simulation decision-making to real environments is needed. Future directions should include providing educational leadership with the effects of different facial emotions during decision-making in simulated learning environments as part of their preparation program to increase their capacities in effectively working with families and ultimately in improving outcomes for students with disabilities