Thinking fast, slow, and ahead: Enhancing in-service teacher contingent responsiveness in science discussion with mixed-reality simulation

Teacher contingent responsiveness, defined as teachers' adaptive expertise to respond to the dynamic flow of student ideas in the moment, is crucial for fostering student sense-making in science classrooms. This study investigates the mechanisms through which a professional development program enhanced by mixed-reality simulation supported in-service teachers to enhance their contingent responsiveness during whole-class science discussions. Using a design-based research approach, researchers and teachers of students aged 6–16 years co-designed a remote professional development program at a private school in Islamabad, Pakistan, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using conjecture mapping, this study uncovered a mechanism through which mixed-reality simulation fostered teacher contingent responsiveness when nested within a carefully designed professional development ecosystem. We found that interleaved practice in mixed-reality simulation with varied discussion framings, combined with case studies and guided collaborative inquiry, supported teachers in changing their discussion framings, which influenced their contingent responsiveness. Our findings reinforced the crucial role of teachers’ intentional framing of the discussion in shaping their responsiveness. This finding extends the theorization of teacher contingent responsiveness beyond fast thinking (thinking in the moment) and slow thinking (knowledge-based reasoning) to additionally include prospective thinking (thinking ahead). Our study also addressed a research gap in in-service teachers' transfer of learning from simulations. We found that teachers applied their learning from the simulation to their real-life classrooms after the professional development program. This study was also one of the first studies of mixed-reality simulation in the Global South context that directly engaged local practitioners in co-designing the technology-enhanced professional development.