Meaningful Practice

Abstract

Novice teachers need to develop foundation teaching skills to effectively address student behavior and academics in the classroom. The TLE TeachLivE™ simulation laboratory (TLE) is a virtual classroom used to supplement traditional didactic instruction and field experiences in teacher preparation programs. In this study, repeated practice and structured feedback were provided to preservice special educators in TLE to improve their delivery of specific praise, praise around, and error correction. Their weekly performance was observed in TLE during simplified teaching scenarios in intervention and during more complex teaching scenarios following intervention. In addition, their generalization of target skills to their own classrooms was measured weekly. Overall, teachers improved delivery of the target skills in the virtual classroom. They generalized performance to real classroom settings with varying levels of proficiency. Implications for teacher preparation are discussed, including the impact of aligning simulated practice opportunities and authentic teaching environments.

Using a Mixed-Reality Environment to Train Special Educators Working With Students With Autism Spectrum Disorder to Implement Discrete Trial Teaching

“…Austin is a male student with ASD who has limited verbal and cognitive abilities and is able to display typical characteristics of ASD such as rocking, flapping, moaning, and inattention. In contrast to Garland et al (2012), but like Dawson and Lignugaris/Kraft (2017), the current study measured the teachers’ ability to transfer their newly acquired skills to a real classroom. This study extended the research by including maintenance probes up to 8 weeks after the conclusion of coaching in the TeachLivE lab.…”

“…Second, mixed-reality environments enable teachers to practice the application of, and experiment with, learned techniques in a safe, carefully controlled, realistic environment, decreasing the loss of potential student learning time while teachers are perfecting their skills (Garland, 2012; Hixon & So, 2009). One mixed-reality environment that has demonstrated the capacity to prepare teachers for the classroom is TLE TeachLivE ™ (TeachLivE; see Dawson & Lignugaris/Kraft, 2017; Garland, Holden, & Garland, 2016; Garland et al, 2012). TeachLivE is a learning lab designed to provide educators a place to practice teaching with virtual characters (avatars) manipulated by human performers (interactors) in a realistic mixed-reality setting in which interactions occur in real time and can be scripted or spontaneous (TLE TeachLivE ™ , 2018).…”

“…Dawson and Lignugaris/Kraft (2017) examined the effects of repeated practice and structured feedback on four preservice special educators’ delivery of specific praise, praise around, and error correction. Two of the four special educators slightly improved their rate of specific praise in both the lab and classroom sessions.…”

Application of Coaching and Behavioral Skills Training During a Preschool Practicum With a College Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…It is likely that this increase in task demand increased the variability in Shelly’s performance within practicum and across practicum settings. Dawson and Lignugaris/Kraft (2016) observed a similar decrease in targeted skill performance as more complex instructional routines were added to teacher’s repertoires. They suggested that modifying the order in which skills are introduced and the feedback structure might help new teachers maintain previous instructional skills when new skills are introduced.…”

Fictional Video Cases on Parent-Teacher Conversations: Authenticity in the Eyes of Teachers and Teacher Education Students

“…This is because beyond making discrete practices accessible for learners, they even allow for highlighting multiple, alternative versions of a specific situation. In their potential to bring specific cases into teacher education, FVCs also relate to current, simulation-based pedagogical approaches such as TeachLive TM [19]. However, FVCs are not interactive, i.e., they do not allow learners to slip into the teacher role and directly interact with a simulated parent in an immersive environment.…”