Chapter 16: Facing The Challenge of Preparing Science Teachers to use Simulations

Interactive computer simulations have been part of the science education scene since the 1980s. There is now an abundance of simulation software available to teachers and students and an increased presence of computers in homes and schools. Alongside the technological progress, this has also been an era of significant advances in research-based understanding of learning, instruction and teacher practice.

Research has shown that simulations can become powerful instructional tools when their use is based on relevant instructional knowledge and pedagogical strategies. This indicates teacher training should go beyond proficiency in operating software. An effective training model needs to address the complexity of required knowledge and skills and to allow for gradual knowledge integration by moderating the load of cognitive and practical skills. A suitable training model should have a progressive structure that enables the gradual guiding of trainees and addresses concerns of self-efficacy inherent in any adoption of complex innovations.

In this chapter we describe a teacher-training model that includes three, progressively complex, iterations of a basic cycle: Modeling, Practice, Evaluation and Reflection. The trainees start by experiencing innovative simulation-based learning from the learner’s perspective, continue with acquiring a vocabulary and criteria for “Characterizing and evaluating instructional simulations” and finally relate to research on learning and teaching science for “Designing and evaluating simulation-based activities.”

Trainees (pre and in-service) respond to the training model in ways related to their professional development. Initial implementation of the newly gained knowledge and skills reveals the persistence of some pre-instruction conceptions and tendencies. We conclude that long-term training is required to establish lasting good practice.