Using Virtual Rehearsal in a Simulator to Impact the Performance of Science Teachers

Retooling Teachers

To engage students at new levels of thinking related to science, teachers need to demonstrate an array of teaching practices in their classrooms, and teacher preparation and PD should target the practices teachers find most challenging (Windschitl et al., 2012). In the Measures of Effective Teaching study, Kane and Staiger (2012) report that teachers score lowest for complex teaching skills such as questioning, discussion techniques, and communicating with students about content. University of Michigan’s Teaching Works (2014) analyzed core capabilities for teachers and developed a set of 19 high-leverage practices (HLPs) of which mastery will likely lead to increased advances in student learning. The HLPs are based on research linking particular practices to student achievement (Loewenberg Ball & Forzani, 2010). The Teaching Works’ HLPs span across content, teacher style, and setting, and include eliciting and interpreting student thinking, and providing oral feedback on students’ work (Loewenberg Ball, Sleep, Boerst, & Bass, 2009), both of which take place in inquiry-based discussions. Danielson (2011) provided indicators for similar teaching capabilities, including higher-level questioning. Higher-level questions are defined as open-ended questions that allow students to use past experiences, prior knowledge, and previously learned content in order to create a well-thought-out answer (i.e., question statements that begin with “How”, “What”, or “Why”) that relates to new content. For science teachers in particular, questioning appears to be the weakest element of instruction, and researchers have proposed a core set of instructional practices for science teachers, including questioning to elicit student thinking (Windschitl et al., 2012).