An interactive education platform provides pre-service teachers with a “safe space” to practice and reflect on their communication with parents and students.
An immersive educational technology is helping pre-service educators at UNSW improve their teaching techniques and communication skills. The interactive training platform, SimLab, uses mixed reality to simulate realistic classroom scenarios via video conference.
Pre-service teachers interact with digital avatars managed by professional actors in real time to practice managing parent/teacher meetings and student misbehaviours.
“SimLab provides a safe, realistic environment for students to rehearse and reflect on their classroom management and relationship-building skills. These skills are essential for creating an effective and inclusive learning environment,” says Professor Terry Cumming from UNSW’s School of Education.
Mixed reality environments incorporate aspects of virtual and augmented realities with the real world; users interact with both digital and physical aspects simultaneously.
“Research has shown that pre-service teachers using simulated learning environments increase their skills in collaboration, providing feedback, differentiating individual students’ needs and strategic teaching,” says Prof. Cumming.
UNSW has used the SimLab platform in undergraduate and postgraduate classroom management courses, with funding from UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture, to help prepare education students for their practicum placements.
Prof. Cumming tailored the technology, in collaboration with SimLab and Murdoch University, to include scenarios for de-escalating students when they are misbehaving and emotionally escalated.
The Strong Beginnings: Report of the Teacher Education Expert Panel (2023) states that Initial Teacher Education (ITE) must provide students with instruction in the proactive prevention and management of misbehaviour.
“Student misbehaviour is often cited as a main cause of stress for early career teachers. SimLab provides valuable practice to help prepare teachers for some of the challenges they might face,” says Prof. Cumming.
Prof. Cumming is an expert in special education and the Academic Lead (Education) for the UNSW Disability Innovation Institute. Her research areas include the use of technology in the classroom, the educational needs of students with emotional and behavioural disorders, positive behavioural interventions, social skills training and Universal Design for Learning (optimising teaching and learning for all people).
Educational simulations can target particular skill development at diverse levels of difficulty. For example, by focusing on students of a certain age, or including students living with disabilities, for pre- or in-service teachers.
“The SimLab classroom management simulation helps ITE [Initial Teacher Education] teachers develop a toolkit of practical approaches for positive behaviour support. It allows them to make decisions and experience their immediate consequences,” Prof. Cumming says.
ITE teachers plan and deliver an entry-level lesson in one of their subject areas. They interact with five student avatars pitched around Years 5-8 level with a range of abilities. Each student avatar has a detailed learning and character profile; one student has high-functioning autism spectrum disorder.
“We provide the profiles to our ITE teachers ahead of time, so they know what to expect from different students as they would in the classroom,” explains Prof. Cumming.
SimLab actors control the actions and responses of the student avatars. The ‘interactors’ specialise in improvisation and are trained to simulate strong behavioural and emotional responses in line with each student’s profile.
The 10-minute simulation enables students to rehearse ways to differentiate their teaching to meet students’ specific learning needs and to de-escalate misbehaviours, using Geoff Colvin’s escalation cycle.
“ITE teachers study Colvin’s stages of behavioural escalation – from calm to triggered, agitated, accelerating, peak then recovery – as well as his strategies for de-escalation aligned with each stage of the cycle,” says Prof. Cumming.
During the simulation, they experience challenging student behaviours. These begin with low-level misbehaviours: students disengage, go to sleep, question the teacher or start talking off topic. One girl is on her phone the whole time, you can see her with her head down.
These progress, in some cases to a heightened emotional event, with the student avatars escalating – for example, through pushbacks, refusal and/or yelling – or de-escalating in response to teacher behaviours.
The cycle of escalation stops when ITE teachers respond appropriately in relation to the stage of escalation. “Early intervention is the most effective strategy, for example, using distraction, going for a drink or a walk, offering another activity or offering a calming activity may defuse the situation,” Prof. Cumming says.
“A common mistake is talking a lot when someone's escalated or yelling, which just makes everything worse. The more escalated a student is, the less verbal communication should be used.”
For ITE teachers who are managing the virtual class well, the student avatars begin arguing among themselves to enable the exploration of de-escalation strategies.
Making the simulations as true to life as possible is a challenge. “If student avatars had more range of movement – if they could get up, touch or hit each other, throw things or storm out – this would have improved the ITE teachers’ experience. This limitation will likely be corrected over time as technology advances,” says Prof. Cumming.
To compensate for this, interactors were instructed to verbally escalate, including being verbally aggressive and using profanities, behaviours teachers might encounter in today’s classrooms.
Students participate in the simulations in pairs, taking turns to observe and take on the teacher role. They receive training in providing feedback on each other’s performance.
Instruction in parent-teacher meetings is mandatory in Initial Teacher Education as defined by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). Effective parent–teacher communication builds supportive relationships that can help improve educational outcomes, says Prof. Cumming.
“We know that parents’ involvement improves students’ grades, attitudes and behaviour from the early years to throughout high school,” she says.
“However, research has demonstrated that many parents feel the communication with schools can be improved; particularly the valuing of their contributions to their children’s education.”
While role-play can be a useful approach in teacher training, this can be limited by some ITE teachers’ limited experience with parenthood.
In SimLab, ITE teachers meet one-on-one with an angry parent avatar to discuss a problem, for example bullying based on students’ sexual orientation, appearance or academic ability. ITE teachers study and draw on the ‘LAFF don’t CRY’ strategy for active listening in these scenarios.
The ‘LAFF don’t CRY’ mnemonic identifies steps to demonstrate empathy and learn about parent concerns. These are: Listen, empathise and communicate respect; Ask questions and ask permission to take notes; Focus on the issues; and Find a first step; but don’t Criticise people who aren’t present; React hastily and promise something you can’t deliver; or Yakety-yak-yak.
“If the ITE teacher handles the interaction poorly, the parent-avatar leaves the meeting even angrier. Students can find it tough when parents don’t treat them as professionals,” she says.
“After the simulation, an education professional provides feedback and the student reattempts the scenario. This promotes reflection to help them improve their communication.”
Prof. Cumming, together with UNSW’s Dr Ellen Lee, conducted an exploratory study into students’ perceptions of SimLab and its impact on their sense of self-efficacy.
UNSW Bachelor of Education (Secondary) and the Master of Teaching (both primary and secondary) students participated in both simulations as compulsory ungraded course activities. Neither the undergraduate or postgraduate group had completed a practicum or had teaching experience.
“Overall, students found that using the simulations was a helpful way to practice communication and management skills,” says Dr Lee. “Some wanted more opportunities to practice in mixed reality environments.”
One student said: “Using the simulation is a really valuable experience as it provides a safe space to encounter confronting and difficult scenarios, removing the surprise and shock when we encounter them in real life. It also gives us a chance to practice the skills we have been taught at university in a low-stakes environment with an opportunity for adjustment and reflection.”
Students noted the realism of the simulation’s “vivid” mixed reality environment as a significant benefit. Others commented that the behaviour and personalities of the parent and student avatars were very authentic.
However, some students struggled with the technology; others noted difficulties teaching in a virtual simulation due to their teaching area (music, art, etc.).
“These kinds of experiences are not a replacement for practise in a real classroom. There are some skills and strategies that require teachers and students to be present in a real classroom together, such as eye contact, proximity and general human warmth,” Prof. Cumming says.
“Mixed reality simulations are one tool on the continuum of teacher preparation experiences meant to prepare students for their ultimate goal – successfully teaching in today’s diverse classroom environments.”
UNSW’s School of Education is exploring a range of simulations as part of its teaching methodologies. “As the technology advances so will our ability to harness it to support the skills development of both pre- and in-service teachers,” says Prof. Cumming.
School of Education
Professor Terry Cumming
