Abstract
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Preparing and Supporting University Physics Educators.] Undergraduate students are increasingly being used to support course transformations that incorporate research-based instructional strategies. While such students are typically selected based on strong content knowledge and possible interest in teaching, they often do not have previous pedagogical training. The current training models make use of real students or classmates role playing as students as the test subjects. We present a new environment for facilitating the practice of physics pedagogy skills, a highly immersive mixed-reality classroom simulator, and assess its effectiveness for undergraduate physics learning assistants (LAs). LAs prepared, taught, and reflected on a lesson about motion graphs for five highly interactive computer generated student avatars in the mixed-reality classroom simulator. To assess the effectiveness of the simulator for this population, we analyzed the pedagogical skills LAs intended to practice and exhibited during their lessons and explored LAs’ descriptions of their experiences with the simulator. Our results indicate that the classroom simulator created a safe, effective environment for LAs to practice a variety of skills, such as questioning styles and wait time. Additionally, our analysis revealed areas for improvement in our preparation of LAs and use of the simulator. We conclude with a summary of research questions this environment could facilitate.
- Received 30 November 2014
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.010117
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Published by the American Physical Society
Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)
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This article appears in the following collection:
Preparing and Supporting University Physics Educators Focused Collection
A special collection highlighting the current state of the field of physics education research as it relates to preparing and supporting physics educators at colleges and universities.
Synopsis
A Virtual Physics Classroom
Published 22 February 2016
A classroom simulator with virtual students can provide young teaching assistants a controlled setting for practicing teaching methods.
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