Chapter 5: Simulating Teacher-Pupil Planning in a Middle Level Teacher Preparation Program

Experience and reflecting on experience are fundamental to human learning (Dewey, 1938), and the importance of experiential approaches to learning in teacher education is well documented (Huss, 2007; Kaufman, 1996; Seed, 2008). However, because testing and accountability polices have narrowed the curriculum taught in public middle level schools, preservice teacher education programs may find it difficult or impossible to provide opportunities for teacher candidates to experience firsthand the characteristics of successful middle level schools described in This We Believe and other middle level literature (National Middle School Association, 2010).

To address this challenge, teacher educators can create authentic learning experiences (Newmann et al., 1996) in the university classroom to approximate middle level teacher practices as preservice candidates might enact them in the field. Simulations, role-playing, and modeling are effective methods for providing authentic learning experiences in professional programs like teacher education (Leamana & Flanagana, 2013; Ward et al., 2006). The literature abounds with examples of virtual interdisciplinary teaming (Wilson, 2007), modeled alternative assessment strategies (Ziegenfuss, 2011), role playing for the development of cultural competence (Chisholm, 1994), and Socratic questioning role plays (Huss, 2007).