Pre-service Teachers' Perspectives on Teaching in Second Life

Objective/Purpose

    Teaching algebra is not an easy task.  Even more difficult is teaching algebra to the wide range of learning styles, personalities, and cultures that fill America's classrooms.  Without live classrooms as a learning platform, alternative (now virtual) classrooms must be created for pre-service teacher training.  In simulated classrooms, pre-service teachers can explore both content and pedagogy. The virtual platform, however, is new and laden with both promise and problem. 

    This mixed-methods study describes the work in the first phase of a 5-year NSF funded project. The overall project focuses on the design, development and testing of technology-enriched teacher preparation strategies to address algebra teaching and learning for all students. This study addresses the following question: What are the perspectives of pre-service teachers regarding their Second Life (SL) teaching experience? 

Perspective(s) or Theoretical Framework

    Practice is the core of teacher preparation; however, opportunities to learn through practice are sometimes minimal or underspecified in preparing teachers (Ball & Forzani, 2009). Moreno and Ortegano-Layne (2007) asserted that individuals can learn either directly or indirectly by observing people in real or fictitious situations. The current research trend in integrating fictional situations in education has been focused on interactive learning environments (Winn, 2000). Specifically, "in simulation, virtual worlds contain facsimiles of real objects and their behavior (Winn, 1993)"  and "computer-supported learning environments that are built around simulations work best with a problem-solving or constructivist approach to learning (Winn, 2000, p.346)."

    As one of the most popular and persistent multi-user interactive virtual environments (MUIV), SL has been documented as having great potential for education (Bransford & Gawel, 2006; Cunningham & Harrison, 2010; Goodband, Bhakta, & Lawson, n.d. ). SL offers exciting opportunities for simulated teaching and learning in teacher education programs.

Methods

Participants  Participants for this study included 16 pre-service teachers in a Southwest research intensive university, majoring in middle school math and science education. Enrolled in a semester-long course "Problem Solving Mathematics" designed for the project, all participants volunteered to participate in the study.

Setting  At the beginning of the semester, SL orientation was provided for the participants through lectures, handouts, and on-line practice. Participants created their own avatars and were asked to prepare and submit a 15-minute lesson on either proportion, slope, ratio, or rate to be taught in SL. Graduate assistants reviewed each lesson, evaluated possible algebraic misconceptions, and subsequently acted as virtual students in the SL classroom.

Instrument  A semi-structured (Frey & Fontana, 1994) interview protocol was developed to probe the pre-service teachers' reflections about their SL teaching experience. The interview questions focused on pre-service teachers' perceptions on the preparation and implementation of their lesson plan, the classroom environment in SL, the SL teaching experience, and interactions between pre-service teachers and student avatars.

Data Collection  The pre-service teachers taught one lesson in SL (See Figure 1) and were interviewed following their SL teaching experience. These interviews were audio taped and later transcribed by a professional service.

Data Analysis  Immediately after the interviews, debriefing sessions were held.  These debriefing sessions and interview transcripts were coded by research question and then attribute and value codes were applied in an effort to determine the pre-service teachers' affinity toward the SL teaching experience. The six themes that emerged are addressed in the results section.

Figure 1.An episode of SL teaching simulation from this project.

Results

SL Simulated Teaching: Benefits and Challenges

    The pre-service teachers identified three beneficial and three challenging responses to their SL teaching experience.

Low-risk teaching scenario: Participants regarded the SL simulated teaching as a low-risk teaching scenario. For example, the SL teaching experience was described as "a lot less intimidating," as "getting rid of anxious or embarrassed [feelings]," and as being "without the stress of ruining someone's life." They, also, expressed appreciation for the opportunity to teach as a novice in SL as it did not endanger "real" students' learning.

Focused practice in teaching algebra: Another advantage of SL simulated teaching, according to the students, was that it provided focused practice in teaching algebra. Participants told the interviewers that the SL simulated teaching helped them "know [their] stuff" and "find different ways to explain it."

Use of technology as a teaching tool: Although most participants still preferred face-to-face teaching to their SL simulation, some participants' attitudes towards SL were transformed. For example one student stated that she could "see a use for it°because it did help." After becoming comfortable with the platform, one participant even referred to SL as "great."

Authenticity of the simulated classroom: While some participants believed that the questions from student avatars helped, most participants raised concerns about the authenticity of the simulated classroom. Participants critiqued the simulated classroom by claiming that they "couldn't see [the avatars'] facial expressions or if they were sleeping." A reoccurring response was that students liked to "see the people that [they're] talking to."

SL orientation and training: Another concern of the pre-service teachers was the amount of time spent on SL orientation and training. Participants suggested that there are some simple and useful actions and operations that should be taught as they only needed to know what they were "actually gonna use."

Technological issues: Third, pre-service teachers viewed technological issues as a constraint of SL simulated teaching. Participants reported technological difficulties such as lag time when writing on the virtual Smart Board: "when I wrote on the little board, it took a long time for what I wrote [to show] up on there."

Scientific Significance of the Study

    We found that simulated SL teaching provided pre-service teachers low-risk teaching scenarios, a focused practice in teaching algebra, and use of technology as a teaching tool. In addition, the simulated SL teaching failed pre-service teachers in terms of authenticity of the simulated classroom, a burdensome SL orientation and training, and technological problems. The findings of this study provide insights for the design, planning, and implementation of a simulated teaching environment for pre-service math teachers.

References

Ball, D. L., & Forzani, F. M. (2009). The work of teaching and the challenge for teacher  education. Journal of Teacher Education, 60(5), 497-511.

Bransford, J., & Gawel, D. (2006).Foreword. In D. Livingston, & J. Kemp (Eds.), Proceedings of the First Second Life Education Workshop (p. iii). Paisley, UK:  The University of Paisley.

Cunningham, C. A., & Harrison, K. (2010). The affordances of Second Life for education.  In G. Vincenti, & J. Braman (Eds.), Multi-user virtual environments for the classroom: Practical approaches to teaching in virtual worlds (pp. 94-119). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.

Fontana, A., & Frey, J. (1994). Interviewing: The Art of Science. In Denzin & Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (pp. 361-376). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Goodband, J., Bhakta, R., & Lawson, D. (n.d.). Exploring new technologies in  mathematics support. Centre for Excellence in Mathematics and Statistics Support, Faculty of Engineering and Computing, Coventry University.

Moreno, R., & Ortegano-Layne, L. (2007). Do classroom exemplars promote the    application of principles in teacher education? A comparison of videos, animations, and narratives. Educational Technology Research and Development, 56(4), 449-465.

Winn, W. (1993). A conceptual basis for educational applications of virtual reality. (HITL Technical Report R-93-9), Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington, Seattle.

Winn, W. (2002). Current trends in educational technology research: The study of   learning environments. Educational Psychology Review, 14(3), 331¨C351.