Become a teacher: simSchool

1. SimSchool

Figure 1. simSchool

Today's lesson we worked with a simulation online, called simSchool. SimSchool is classroom simulation that "supports the rapid accumulation of a teacher's experience" (simSchool, 2011, About section, para. 1). Dr. professor G. Knezek from the University of North Texas gave a guest lecture about simSchool. According to G. Knezek (personal communication, October 5, 2011) with simSchool teachers can simulate their lessons and learn from interactions in the classroom. SimSchool provides teachers for "analyzing student differences, adapting instruction to individual learner needs, gathering data about the impacts of instruction, and seeing the results of their teaching" (simSchool, About section, para. 1). Zibit and Gibson (2005) compare it with a flight simulator where novice teachers were immersed in some complexities of teaching. The students in the simulation are 7th and 12th grade students with a variety of different learning characteristics and personalities. 

SimSchool is not designed to replace the experiences from novice teachers while learning how to teach. The simulation is designed as a virtual practicum, which supports teachers in the development of teaching skills before they actually experience in real classrooms. As stated before, the main goal is to provide novice teachers insight in classroom interactions and complexities.

The simSchool About page provides information about the results of teacher’s experience. According to the simSchool (2011), teachers improve in general their teaching skill and the use of technology. There is also an “increased belief that the teacher has the skills and ability to make a difference in a child’s life” (About section, para. 2). With simSchool, teachers also improve the preparation for courses and attitudes toward inclusion of student’s special needs (simSchool, 2011). Working with simSchool has a positive impace on the mastery of deeper learning capacities that comprise the readiness to teach and acquires through rapid development of strong self-efficacy and resilience (simSchool, 2011). Zibit and Gibson (2005) state simSchool also provides expert feedback, so the simSchool program can been seen as “simulated apprenticeship” (Zibit and Gibson, p. 1) because of the “tacit processes, mental models and professional skills of an expert that are needed to succeed in teaching are embedded in the structure, rules, choices, and environment of the” (Zibit and Gibson, p. 1). 


2. Everly's bad day

In this module, I worked with a simulation where I learned to teach only one student, named Everly. Everly is a student who needs stimulation, is diligent about assignments, follows instruction and has a good self-esteem. This information was available in his file on the computer (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The student's file on the computer.

During the lesson, I started with an introduction to recall the contents from previous lesson. It was hard to get Everly to get to work. During the introduction I tried multiple ways to let Everly recall the contents from previous lesson. After the introduction, I gave Everly the task silent reading, but after finishing this task his motivation went downhill. Because I knew Everly is creative, I told him to make a creative product about the content. Then his motivation grew.

Figure 3. Everly's graph.

In conclusion about Everly, not every task was right to give to Everly. When deciding what task to give, Everly became bored and went to do something else. After such a period, it was hard to get Everly back to work. Figure 3 shows six factors in a graph, where the teacher can see the progress of the lesson.

3. The module

The module is a simulation of a classroom where you have to teach one or multiple students. The time in the simulation goes six times faster than the actual time. So, you can play of pause the simulation when thinking about the next task you will give to the students. In the simulation, you can use multiple buttons to assign a recall, skill/concept, strategic thinking or extended thinking task. These grouped tasks are separated in different actual tasks, like ‘silent reading’, ‘do design on multiple criteria’ or even ‘do a team worksheet’. It is also possible to talk to the students. Talking is grouped in behavioral assertion, behavioral observation, behavioral inquiry, academic assertion, academic observation and academic inquiry. These groups contains multiple items vary from positive to negative.

In the simulation it is clear that you as teacher have to try different ways of teaching by giving different tasks to the students or students individual. You also have to react to students who have questions and sometimes there is need to give students separate tasks simultaneous. In the simulation, it is clear the teacher must deal with a lot of different variables.

The usability of the simulation could be more effective in my opinion. The buttons you have to use by giving tasks are small, and you have to keep your mouse on the icon to view its definition. So, the icons used are not enough to understand the functionality. While the simulation records the time, in the simulation you lose time by finding out the button’s definition and clicking. I think an improvement for the simulation is to create bigger buttons with both an icon and text. In that case, the icon should be more explainable.

 Figure 4. Small buttons.

 4. Reflection

I think the simulation is usable for both teachers and novice teachers. Most teacher preparation programs focus on preparing novice teachers through methods courses (Zibit & Gibson, 2005). These courses include a mixture of “lecture, hands-on activities, and lesson plan development assignments” (Zibit & Gibson, p. 2). Such courses deal more with the ‘know-how’ of teaching mathematics, rather than tacit ‘know-how’ knowledge. SimSchool tries to provide training to learn ‘know-how’ knowledge. ‘Know-how’ is even more than ‘know-what’ essential knowledge when becoming a professional (Orlikowski in Zibit & Gibson). In my opinion simSchool meets the need to learn outside the classroom the ‘know-how’. Of course, a program like simSchool is not complete, there are far too many variables the program’s designers have to count for. But such a simulation is a good solution for providing apprenticeship opportunities and expert feedback, when in practice there is too little time. Besides, simSchool is a handy simulation of the classroom, where a novice teacher can make mistakes without consequences. When working with simSchool, novice teachers have to keep in mind to keep the general principles and complexities of learning in the classroom.

Resources

• simSchool. (2011). simSchool. Retrieved on 10 october 2011, from: www.simschool.org
• Zibit, M., & Gibson, D. (2005). simSchool: The game of teaching. Innovate: Journal of Online Education, 1(6). Retrieved from: www.innovateonline.info/pdf/vol1_issue6/simSchool_-__The_Game_of_Teaching.pdf