Digital Simulation
The “reality” of digital simulations provides a safe environment to practice relationship building.
What It Is
A simulation is an interactive representation of a situation that engages the user in a decision-making process. Digital simulation is a form of observational — as opposed to direct experience — learning. It challenges participants to bring their professional skills, knowledge, and decision-making capabilities to address complex dilemmas of practice.
In the family engagement field, digital simulations involve decision making on a variety of issues, such as communicating with parents, building trusting relationships, addressing cultural differences, coaching parents, and identifying the priorities of poor families.
How It Works
Digital simulations employ avatars or actors to portray different educator, family, and child roles. The scenarios offer a menu of decisions for the user and there are no right or wrong answers. Users can try out different actions and learn what happens when they say or do the right thing and what happens when they make a mistake. In some simulations, users can go back and redo their responses, and a virtual coach is there to provide feedback from start to finish. Users can practice communication tactics like open-ended questions, reflective listening, and support for parent competence. With their engaging scenarios, simulations provide a safe environment to practice relationship building.
Simulations can be used individually. They can also be used by groups of students or peers in a workplace to discuss their decisions and the reasons for them. They can be used in supervisory meetings and in orientations for new staff.
As technology evolves, so too does the sophistication of simulations. Researchers at the University at Buffalo, in conjunction with a local public charter school and a digital-media company, are in the early stages of using virtual reality.¹
What Changes
Evaluations of digital simulations are still nascent. Research on the use of video simulations among novice teachers indicates that they were able to discriminate between effective and less-effective forms of professionalism in parent-teacher communication.² This could be a first step in the pathway toward growing their responsiveness and effective structuring of conversations with parents. College students in Spain that used one of the Office of Head Start simulations in their coursework also responded positively to its use. Students reported more in-depth understanding of the importance of parent-teacher relationships and strategies for working with families.³
An evaluation of a home-visit simulation to promote early literacy suggests that users can develop a sense of efficacy in building positive relationships with families. Family care workers reported confidence in using the steps learned in the simulation to guide parents in reading to their children, helping parents overcome barriers in getting their children to read together, and modeling for a parent how to read to their children.⁴ Simulations developed by the Office of Head Start have been used primarily by teachers and family service workers. They report the value of simulations for demonstrating relationship-building strategies and providing the opportunity to practice communicating and interacting with families.⁵
Approach in Action
The Parent, Family, and Community Engagement Simulation, developed by the Office of Head Start, is a set of online interactive training sessions. Using avatars, the simulations focus on establishing relationships with families, co-creating family goals, and building on family strengths in challenging times. The simulations have been used to support individual as well as organizational development. For example, managers ask staff members to participate in the simulation, print the transcript, and bring it to their reflective supervision meeting. Managers use the transcript during these meetings to ask staff members questions like, Let’s talk about why you made this choice. Is this something that you currently do? Can you talk about a recent example in which this type of strategy worked for you? And, Here was an opportunity to make a different choice. After having looked at what unfolded next, what do you now think you could modify in the future to bring about a different outcome?⁶
Some programs are asking staff members from different departments to do the simulation, print the transcript, and bring the transcript to a whole-staff meeting. During this meeting, staff members talk about the different paths they took during the exercise, their missteps, and their successes. They also have an opportunity to explore the simulation together in real time.⁷ In this way, the staff members gain insights that can improve cross-departmental practice within a supportive organization.
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Endnotes
¹ Loewus, L. (2017, September 5). How virtual reality is helping train new teachers [blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2017/09/06/student-teachers-get-real-world-practice-via.html
² Walker, J., & Dotger, B. (2012). “Because wisdom can’t be told”: Using comparison of simulated parent-teacher conferences to assess teacher candidates’ readiness for family-school partnerships. Journal of Teacher Education, 21(6), 871–892. Retreived from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0022487111419300
³ Paz-Albo Prieto, J. (2018). The influence of simulations on family engagement — prospective early childhood educators’ perceptions, Early Child Development and Care, 188:2, 102–108, DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2016.1202946
⁴ Kognito. (n.d.). Pilot study on family support simulations under RWJF grant. New York, NY: Author. Retrieved from http://go.kognito.com/rs/143-HCJ-270/images/Hel_RWJF-Kognito-Family-Support-Simulations.pdf
⁵ Londhe, R. (personal communication, October 16, 2018).
⁶ Thacker, B.B., & Richard, G. (2013). Exploring the parent, family, community engagement simulation: A conversation with Brandi Black Thacker and Guylaine Richard. FINE Newsletter, 5, (4).
⁷ Thacker & Richard. (2013).
