Practicing difficult conversations through app-based simulations
Sheila Conway
Sheila Conway is the co-director of teacher education at the University of Pittsburgh. Here she discusses using Teacher Moments simulations in her class.
As a special education faculty member, I have been working to increase my preservice teachers’ opportunities to prepare for high-stake meetings with parents and additional practice planning intensive instruction and interpreting assessment. I learned about the work the MIT Teaching Systems Lab is doing on practice spaces at the AACTE conference in 2018. The concept of application based simulations was interesting to me as I was interested in the way technology could update the work I had already started around practice-based teacher education. I will first describe my prior work, and then describe my experience using practice spaces in my own classroom.
Prior work: Case studies
My prior work had been in developing and using case studies and in person mock IEP meetings. With the support of a Federal grant from the Office of Special Education, I led the efforts for our faculty to embed case studies into four of our Special Education methods courses. Each case study provides students with a variety of videos and documentation about a local adolescent with a disability. For example, the Assessment course case study focuses on teenager with autism. The pre-service candidates see videos of interviews with the student, his mother, and his teacher. The case study also includes videos of standardized individual achievement tests being administered to the student (i.e. Key Math and WIAT). The preservice teachers watch the videos and score the protocols based on the video, as a practice prior to administering the assessments independently during their student teaching. The case studies also include documentation such as IEPs and Evaluation Reports to provide context and examples for the preservice teachers.
In addition to the video case studies, I incorporate simulations in my course with mock IEP meetings. I organize volunteers to participate as parents in mock IEP meetings. Research and experience tell us that IEP meetings are one of the most intimidating experiences for novice special educators. This practice session allows them to rehearse and receive feedback prior to running a meeting with a real family. Both the case studies and the simulations are rich learning experiences, but require a lot of coordination and effort to put together.
Introduction to practice spaces through INSPIRE workshop
During the INSPIRE workshop, I learned about Teacher Moments. Teacher Moments is a practice space where students view a focused scenario using an application-based simulation platform. I implemented the Teacher Moments practice space during a one credit seminar in the Fall of 2018 to enhance simulation delivery and participation in my class. Pre-service teachers have limited opportunities to engage with parents, thus I focused on simulations designed to provide approximations of the practice of parent communication. In special education, it is particularly important for novice teachers to be prepared to build relationships and positive communication with families.
Using practice spaces in my course
In my first attempt to use the simulations to build communication skills and experience, I assigned my graduate students the Lori Danson case for homework. They were frustrated by the technology. I received multiple student emails with worries about how to complete the activity, so I now recommend an in person try before attempting to assign it for homework. However when we were together in class we had a positive debrief. Based on the homework assignment and a survey, the students provided data about their experiences with the technology and interfacing with a parent. Using quotes from the survey, I created a powerpoint to share some common themes. It was powerful and comforting for the students to see the anonymous quotes and realize that many of their peers had similar experiences and emotions in responding to the parent in the simulation. The student response, “I need to know how to respond to someone when they question my experience/age/education. I get insecure about those questions whenever someone that is older than me asks them, but I should come to expect them and gain confidence in my education and experiences” triggered an in depth conversations about expectations for novice teachers both from others and for themselves. The shared experience allowed for an in depth conversation.
A month later I implemented a different Teacher Moments practice space activity in class with students working in pairs. Students were engaged and responsive to the activity. The in class session was more successful than my first attempt with assigning the simulation for homework. Students had minor technology issues but I was able to quickly problem solve to resolve them. The students indicated a strong preference for the video based simulation in comparison to the text based practice space. This class session felt like the “playful rehearsal” Justin Reich describes. The students enjoyed working in pairs and felt empowered rather than intimidated by the technology this session. I changed several components: a video simulation, working in pairs, and completing it in class so it is difficult to pinpoint the major factor of improvement. In short, I would recommend doing all three elements.
Novice teachers face incredible responsibilities for the learning and growth of students as soon as they enter the career. When teacher preparation programs provide meaningful opportunities for preservice teachers to practice and receive feedback on teaching competencies before they enter the schools it benefits K-12 students, families, and schools. Playful practice spaces allow teacher candidates a safe learning opportunity to dedicate the necessary time and reflection to improve their teaching practice. These spaces also allow faculty a common ground to frame class discussion and incorporate content to promote best practices in teaching.
My next steps
I will integrate Practice Spaces in my course again this Fall using the model of in class with partner pairs. I am also implementing another module about equity in an introductory teacher education course related to equity and access to computer science courses for females. I will be partnering with Garron Helliare to collect data from this implementation.
In my work with novice teachers, it is apparent that additional opportunities to practice and/or rehearse novice teachers’ developing communication and instructional skills as preservice teachers have the potential to reduce novice teacher stress and uncertainty. I would love to partner with teacher education colleagues to advance my work in simulations and share some of my experiences. Class time is so precious, I believe that teacher education would benefit from broader experimentation and research related to practice simulations to improve novice teacher confidence and skills. I believe simulations could be developed in these areas that would have potential benefits for students beyond my University.
