Teacher Coaching in a Simulated Environment

Abstract

This article evaluates whether providing coaching between practice sessions in teacher education courses leads to more rapid development of skills and changes in teachers’ beliefs about student behavior, using mixed-reality simulations as a practice space and standardized assessment platform. We randomly assigned 105 prospective teachers to different coaching conditions between simulation sessions integrated into a teacher preparation program. Coached candidates had significant and large improvements on skills relative to those who only reflected on their teaching. We also observe significant coaching effects on candidates’ perceptions of student behavior and ideas about next steps for addressing perceived behavioral issues. Findings suggest that skills with which novices struggle can improve with coaching and do not have to be learned “on the job.”

Simulations as practice‐based spaces to support elementary teachers in learning how to facilitate argumentation‐focused science discussions

“…We hypothesize that it is not the simulation experience in and of itself that promotes teachers' learning, but it is the simulation experience coupled with opportunities to reflect on one's practice and to debrief this experience with peers and knowledgeable others that support teachers in learning how to engage in ambitious practices like facilitating argumentation‐focused discussions. In fact, recent research (Cohen, Wong, Krishnamachari, & Berlin, 2020) has suggested that teacher learning is best supported by specific and targeted feedback from knowledgeable others—in this case, a coach—on key aspects of practice, and that coaching results in more rapid learning for novice teachers than self‐reflection alone.…”

Implications for European Physical Education Teacher Education during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-institutional SWOT analysis

“…Dyment and Downing (2020), however, state that if research, practice and policy fail to connect online initial teacher education (ITE), the student experience and graduate learning outcomes may be hampered. Interestingly, Cohen et al (2020) have recently reported a successful approach with regards a combined synchronous and asynchronous coaching of pre-service teachers in simulated online learning environments. Specifically, the authors found an increased effect of the combined synchronous and asynchronous approach, when compared to asynchronous coaching only in simulated learning environments.…”

“…Particularly related to the COVID-19 situation, PE is being internationally advocated as a critical face-to-face experience for students (EUPEA 2020), which can be explored by the programmes to improve and update the quality of the provision to their pre-service teachers. Interestingly, all programmes referred to the programmespecific strengths, in how the professional qualification of the programme was an important strength, underlined by the school placement experience (all partners) and the programme curriculum (all partners), which consists of a balanced range of learning opportunities, including experiential and ICT components, despite the need for a better articulation of the online environment (Dyment and Downing 2020;Cohen et al 2020). Following Allen and Seaman (2013) classification, the five programmes could be classified as web-facilitated (1-29% online), with clear potential to transition to a blended/hybrid model (30-79% online).…”

“…Following Allen and Seaman (2013) classification, the five programmes could be classified as web-facilitated (1-29% online), with clear potential to transition to a blended/hybrid model (30-79% online). The identification of successful experiences using online environments (Cohen et al 2020) and principles (Goad and Jones 2017) could address current shortcomings, with the experiential component of online (PE)TE (Moorhouse 2020; Dyment and Downing 2020; Williams 2013). Observing the recent teacher education synchronous content delivery approach employed by Moorhouse (2020), the use of small group discussions ('breakout rooms') with the supporting video conferencing software (VCS) resulted in more efficacious-structured teaching and larger numbers of online student engagement.…”

“…For the PETE students, all cases identified the strength of their student community and their dispositional strengths, the final being related to a motivation for (PE)TE, as well as to their digital literacy and the online learning management systems. Providing some principles and practices to facilitate the successful and economic provision of online learning in ITE (Cohen et al 2020), and particularly for PETE (Williams 2013;Goad and Jones 2017), there are few considerations that support the upkeep of this set of strengths. Institutional and programme-level proactive measures (Zhai and Du 2020; Sahu 2020; Toquero 2020) are particularly critical for the incoming first-year students, having faced an already challenging transition during the end of their secondary education, and this cohort are preparing to embark on another challenging transition to higher education during these uncertain times (Cao et al 2020;Lee 2020) Weaknesses Paradoxically, the SWOT analysis revealed that pedagogy was also identified as a weakness for PETE programmes.…”