Roxana Moreno, Ph.D., J.D.

How can we help teachers in preparation to effectively think and apply principles of educational psychology to highly complex classroom experiences? Much of the dialogue about reforming education during the last decade has focused on the limited preparation students receive to facilitate their transition from school to work (Sears & Hersh, 1999), with much attention to the need of replacing inert knowledge (Whitehead, 1929) with learning in contextualized, meaningful settings (Borko & Putnam, 1999). Students of teaching are not an exception. It is a well-known fact that many preservice teachers experience a fragmented and superficial curriculum characterized by inadequate time to connect theory and practice (Goodlad, 1990; Holmes Group, 1986, 1995; Merseth, 1999). Applying the theories once learned in traditional educational psychology courses to practice poses the greatest challenge to the new teachers due to the complexity of the classroom environment. One potential pedagogical tool to help bridge theory and practice consists of using case analysis in teacher education: the presentation of a classroom dilemma or problem situation to examine and clarify the complexities and connections of the concepts involved in teaching practice (Laframboise & Griffith, 1997). The case idea (Sykes & Bird, 1992) is not a new approach in teacher education and has been implemented as early as 1920 in some schools in the United States. Today, most educational psychology textbooks include cases as part of their pedagogy (Borich & Tombari, 1997; Eggan & Kauchak, 2001; Omrod, 1999; Woolfolk, 2001). However, the materials, books, and articles about cases and case methods have rarely used any empirical basis to support the claims about their effectiveness as educative tools (Merseth, 1999). The goal of the present project is to develop a set of case-based technological tools: “Guided Interactive Virtual Environments (GIVEs)” to test the effectiveness of case-based learning.

Based on a careful examination of current research in cognitive science, the project starts by proposing a cognitive model to promote the deep understanding and reflective thinking of highly complex systems such as teaching in a classroom of diverse learners. Next, a set of case-based methods to be implemented through the GIVE system is identified. Finally, the project consists of the following major tasks: a collaborate effort with in-service teachers designing a library of relevant materials and case studies; developing diagnostic pretests and evaluative posttests; collecting and analyzing data on the cognitive processes, learning products, and changes in the attitudes, beliefs, and motivation of preservice teachers who learn with the GIVE system; and carrying out a follow-up longitudinal study into the classroom.

The project is motivated by a strong national and local need to improve teachers’ preparation. In New Mexico, 60% of school children are identified as minorities, 17% are Special Education children, and 28% live in poverty, a higher percentage than 47 of the 50 states. The LEP group is largely composed of Hispanic and Native American children, many of who may be more accurately characterized as “non-lingual” rather than bilingual or LEP. Moreover, a major discrepancy exists between the ethnic composition of New Mexico students and its teacher labor force (approximately 38.6% of students are Anglo while 76% of teachers are Anglo). The increasing diversity of school populations, the complexity of the learning process, and the rapidly changing knowledge base about teaching combine to make this challenge particularly daunting. Thus, it is imperative to find ways to provide aspiring teachers with the necessary tools to develop the ways of thinking that will enable them to perform effectively in their classrooms and gain self-efficacy. By conducting focused research on the different factors that contribute to effective contextualized learning, the project will provide a better understanding of the sources that facilitate growth in preservice teachers’ thinking and will suggest directions for the design of more effective and responsive teacher education. The findings that result from the present proposal will not only help understand the factors that contribute to bridge the gap between theory and practice in general, but will also help bridge the cultural gap between teachers and their students in New Mexico.

This work is based on a systematic relationship between theoretical framework, analysis of empirical data, and computational implementation and will have important theoretical and practical implications. First, it will advance knowledge in the educational psychology field by testing a model of effective case-based learning. In addition, the project has direct practical implications by helping to establish guidelines for producing state of the art instructional technologies that promote students' higher level reasoning skills.