Abstract:

Reflective practice is considered a central component of teacher education. Engaging in reflection with peers can provide student teachers with new perspectives and prompt them to challenge and develop their understandings of teaching and their roles as teachers. Video-based simulations can provide structured opportunities for student teachers to share experiences and collaboratively reflect on challenging teaching situations in a safe space. Collaborative reflection is understood here as student teachers’ engagement in shared interpretation, questioning, reasoning about, and reframing teaching situations, as evidenced through actions, talk, and use of the simulation environment.

This study examines how design features of video-based simulation environments afford opportunities for first-year student teachers to engage in collaborative reflection on authentic video-based classroom scenarios. Three simulation-based activities, each featuring a different classroom scenario depicting situations of challenging pupil behaviour, were implemented in a primary teacher education programme. Student teachers were video recorded as they worked through the scenarios in pairs. The video material was analysed using an interaction analysis approach, revealing how features of the simulation environment’s structural components (decision points, feedback, and reflective prompts) create opportunities for shared framing and reframing of the depicted situation.

Three patterns of collaborative reflection were found:
(i) reflective pauses enabled by prompts provided a space for thinking and stimulated collaborative reasoning;
(ii) ambiguous options at decision points encouraged student teachers to negotiate interpretations and possible actions; and
(iii) various kinds of feedback stimulated shared reactions and further discussion.

The findings suggest that digital simulations can serve as meaningful training spaces for student teachers to articulate their reasoning and reconsider their assumptions about the teacher profession and their own emerging teacher identities. The study further contributes to a more nuanced understanding of how collaborative reflection can be stimulated in simulation-based activities and learning environments, thus building on the growing body of research exploring the potential of digital simulations to support student teachers’ professional development.

Keywords:

Classroom simulation, teacher education, collaborative reflection, professional development.