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Teacher preparation programs are beginning to embrace new ways for teacher candidates to practice enacting complex professional activities, such as digital simulations. It can be challenging for teacher educators to support teacher candidates in learning through these experiences when the records of practice are stored in audio or video files. This article discusses a portal being developed through design-based research to allow teacher educators to access and efficiently process records of teacher candidates’ performance from a digital simulation. A pilot study was conducted to see how two teacher educators used a prototyped portal to plan and facilitate a post-simulation debriefing with five teacher candidates, and to identify additional opportunities to foster teacher candidate learning. Findings suggest that accessing short transcripts of teacher candidate performance supported teacher educators in planning a debriefing that was grounded in clear learning objectives and responsive to teacher candidates’ needs, while using the data from the portal to make practice public during the debriefing created opportunities for targeted feedback and supported meaning-making.

Simulations allow preservice teachers to connect education theory and practice in low-risk environments. This study presents findings from our investigation of the suitability of a simulation called “Teacher Moments” for two parent-teacher conference scenarios. Students in a preservice education class completed two Teacher Moments simulations as assignments during the semester. Using a design-based approach, we document how we learn from multiple implementations and discuss the outcome of the revised design. Our findings suggest that students perceive simulations within Teacher Moments as authentic experiences that provoke cognitive dissonance. Additionally, the simulation allows education students to practice key skills in teaching such as remaining calm in difficult situations and articulating their pedagogical and classroom management approaches to parents.

Teacher practice spaces are learning environments, inspired by games and simulations, that allow teachers to rehearse for and reflect upon important decisions in teaching. Practice-based teacher educators use a variety of approaches to simulation in methods courses and other professional learning opportunities, and existing simulations often attempt to holistically replicate authentic teaching conditions. We extend this work by developing new kinds of practice spaces that do not attempt to fully simulate teaching, but rather offer playful and creative opportunities for novice teachers to develop skills and dispositions valuable for teachers. We summarize six different practice spaces developed through design research, and then articulate a set of design considerations emerging from this work to expand the genre of pedagogies of enactment in teacher professional development.

Teacher practice spaces are learning experiences, inspired by games and simulations, that allow novice teachers to rehearse for and reflect on important decisions in teaching. Practice-based teacher educators use various approaches to simulation in methods courses, and these simulations often attempt to holistically replicate the complexity of teaching conditions. In this research, we present a range of practice spaces that don’t attempt to replicate teaching, but explore design spaces with varying levels of authenticity. We define four dimensions of authenticity in teaching simulations: authenticity of complexity, of situation, of role, and of task. We discuss how these different dimensions of authenticity intersect with playfulness in the examination of five case studies of teacher practice spaces. We hypothesize that authenticity of task is essential to most teacher practice spaces, but interesting new design spaces can be found by moving away from other dimensions of authenticity.