From the digital to authentic classroom: A study of using an online simulation for teacher education

The recent increase in critiques of the quality of education offered by schools and universities all over the world has drawn attention to the importance of teachers’ preparation before starting teaching in classroom settings. The purpose of this study is to address the critiques and challenges of current teacher education programs, examine the ways by which simulations can be effective in enhancing the quality of education for pre-service teachers, and evaluate “simSchool” as an online classroom simulation for teacher education. According to standards of evaluating instructional tools and simulations, an evaluative survey was designed and completed by the student teacher participants following practicing and working with simSchool classroom simulation. The qualitative and quantitative data collected from the survey and the self-report results from the simlation were then analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SPSS for Windows, and the final results were reported through descriptive themes and statistical tables.