Highlighting practices and dialogic moves: Investigating simulation-based learning in online teacher education

The aim of this study is to examine the potential of simulations for supporting professional learning opportunities in teacher education. Specifically, we investigate how students enact and analyse core practices in a simulated setting when teaching fractions at the fifth-grade level. The data consists of 160 minutes of video footage in which fifteen pre-service teachers at a Norwegian university either practised teaching in a simulation or served as peer observers. Analytically, we apply interaction analysis to the data to explore how the students engaged in both specific and general core practices. The findings show that simulation training including debriefing facilitates the enactment and critical analyses of various core practices such as creating a productive learning environment and strategically redirecting off-task behaviour. Additionally, the findings show that the pedagogical potential of simulation-based learning lies in the interaction that unfolds between the participants namely, the support of the interactor who scaffolds enactment and the educator who facilitates the students' reflective analysis of teaching through specific dialogic moves. Simulation-based learning is thus suggested as an appropriate supplement for training pre-service teachers, preparing them for future professional work.