We are now accepting applications through August 16, 2023, to participate in the NSF-funded (#2037983) Simulations in Math and Science Teacher Education Meeting, to be held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA. Read on to learn more about this exciting opportunity.
This fully-funded working meeting is intended to provide opportunities for attendees—who will include teacher educators, researchers, professional development facilitators, policy makers, and school district leaders—to learn about new advances in simulations and practice-based teacher education in K-12 science and mathematics teacher education.
Participants will learn about three innovative approaches to integrating digital simulations in math and science teacher education:
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Teacher Moments: A freely-available, mobile platform for short, asynchronous digital clinical simulations. In Teacher Moments, participants are immersed in vignettes of classroom life through videos, images, and text, and then they respond to difficult decisions in teaching through recorded audio and text. Teacher educators can use any of the hundreds of available simulations on the platform or create their own.
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Avatar-Based Simulations: Mixed-reality simulations where teacher-learners lead a classroom lesson in front of a screen and camera. On the screen are up to five simulated students controlled by an actor, who can dynamically react with voices, body movements, and other interactions.
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Virtual Teaching Simulation: An emerging platform for digital clinical simulations in virtual reality, where participants immerse themselves in elementary and middle school classroom environments. Students in the classroom environments are controlled by a team of actors, creating opportunities for teacher-learners to engage in realistic engagements with groups of students.
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Learn more about all three programs at https://tarheels.live/onlinepracticesuite/.
Participants will learn about these different approaches to simulations in teacher education, participate in scenarios as learners themselves, and have opportunities to consider how they can use or adapt these tools for use in their own professional settings. The meeting will conclude with roundtable discussions imagining new futures for simulations and practice-based approaches in math and science teacher education.
Prospective attendees can apply at this link by completing a short survey describing their work and/or interest in simulations and their goals for attending the conference. If needed, travel will be fully funded for all U.S. based participants. Projects are encouraged to submit paired applications with a team member where appropriate, especially where doing so would allow a graduate student, teacher collaborator, post-doctoral researcher, or junior scholar to attend.
If you have questions, feel free to contact Justin Reich (jreich@mit.edu).