Project duration: 01.02.2017 - 31.12.2017
By using the digital revolution for teacher education and assessment, the innovative project proposed will significantly advance teacher training and help improve classroom instruction. Focusing on effective and adaptive classroom management as one of the three core dimension of instructional quality, a virtual classroom environment with 30 students – diverse in their academic talent, motivation, behavior, language skills and gender – will be developed within the framework of a Serious Educational Game (SEG) as a means of advancing the effectiveness and quality of teacher training.
Effective teacher education and assessment are key tasks for all modern societies. By using the digital revolution for teacher education and assessment, the innovative project proposed will significantly advance teacher training and help improve classroom instruction. Focusing on effective and adaptive classroom management as one of the three core dimension of instructional quality, a virtual classroom environment with 30 students – diverse in their academic talent, motivation, behavior, language skills and gender – will be developed within the framework of a Serious Educational Game (SEG) as a means of advancing the effectiveness and quality of teacher training. Its validity and effectiveness will be evaluated with student teachers, as well as in-service teachers in Germany and the US. The first phase of this forward-thinking project will span four years and includes (1) the development of the framework and game model, (2) the game development, programming and piloting, (3) validation and effectiveness studies in both countries, and (4) publication of results. The core project team will be located at the Center for Research on Education and School Development (IFS, at TU Dortmund University, Germany) with close cooperation with experts in the field of teaching and teacher education in Germany and the US, as well as experts from the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST, at UCLA, USA). The total budget estimate for the first phase is 1.4 million euros plus overhead. Future perspectives include the second and third dimension of instructional quality in a second project phase (+2 years) focusing on effective, adaptive cognitive activation as well as a third phase (+2 years) with a focus on effective constructive student support.
National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST, UCLA, USA)
