Teacher Leader: Pursuit of Professionalism. A study on effects of a professionalism game on
preservice teachers’ knowledge and attitudes
Gamze Ozogul, Benjamin Clark and Ryen Borden
Arizona State University
United States
Gamze.Ozogul@asu.edu
benjamin.clark@asu.edu
ryen.borden@asu.edu
Katie Sprouls
ASU
United States
katie.sprouls@asu.edu
Introduction:
Recently, virtual worlds, 3D environments, and computer games have been considered a
widely used media for instruction (Mikropoulos & Natsis, 2011). Computer games present a
medium in which students can be competent, autonomous, and take risks without serious
consequences (Gee, 2005). Game environments offer a variety of different learning experiences
that are not always possible to replicate in a physical classroom (Dickey, 1999). These multidimensional virtual education environments provide constructivist learning activities by allowing
learners to interact directly with information from a first-person perspective (Dede, 1995), thus
help students gain real-life like experiences through a simulated environment. Also these games
have the potential to create an entertaining learning environment which has the potential to
motivate students (Bokyeong, Park & Baek, 2009), attract the attention of students (Rieber,
1996), and encourage active learning by actively doing (Garris, Ahlers, & Driskell, 2002).
McFarlane, Sparrowhawk & Heald (2002) emphasize that games provide opportunities to learn
important skills such as strategic thinking, planning, communication, and decision making.
In line with this trends, there have been efforts to embed virtual worlds or games into
preservice teacher preparation. Unlike other career fields, when students enter teacher education
programs, they are preparing to work in a field in which they already have an established attitude
and great deal of experience having been students themselves for so many years (Papert, 1993).
a- Professionalism Competencies and the rationale for a professionalism game
Teacher preparation programs prepare new teachers by helping them develop
professional knowledge and skills. Preservice teachers must undergo a shift in identity as they
move from students in teacher preparation programs to assume positions as teachers in today’s
challenging school contexts (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2004). Changing roles from preservice
teacher to inservice teacher is related to mind setting and social processes that student teachers
experience when they are learning to teach. The final stages of professionalism consists of a
series of conscious actions, unconscious processes, interactions and conversations, impulses and
responses, planned activities (Atkinson 2004). To support development of the professional
teacher identity might require further consideration on how to teach professionalism to
preservice teachers during their teacher preparation program.
Leveraging the capabilities of simulation environments to teach students about
professionalism throughout the preservice teacher training might prepare them better. In the
literature it is suggested that alternate approaches must be embedded to the teacher education
experience, along with more traditional ways of involving students in courses that place more
opportunities for individual to design a pathway through developing a professional teacher
identity (Beauchamp & Thomas, 2004). The current study strives to answer in an experimental
setting how a game play experience compares to regular class instruction with respect to
affecting preservice teachers’ attitudes and knowledge about professionalism competencies.
Teacher Leader: Pursuit of Teach is a single-user, online, virtual environment game that
teaches about “professionalism competencies.” The game was developed by a southwestern state
university, and will be embedded in all preservice teacher field experience courses beginning in
the Spring 2013 semester. The objective of embedding the game “Teacher Leader: Pursuit of
Professionalism” is to have preservice teachers learn and practice professionalism competencies
in a virtual world, via a simulated environment before they enter the real-classroom. The game
focuses on preservice teachers being exposed to professionalism competencies, and challenged
through situations in which they need to apply professionalism competencies. The
professionalism competencies covered in this game are suspending judgment, locus of control,
asset-based thinking, and interpersonal awareness. These are defined in the game as follows:
(Farr, 2010):
- Suspending judgment: Recognizing when judging someone unfairly (based on
incomplete information), and recognizing when you do not have complete information
- Locus of control: Identifying the things that are in teachers control and persevering in the
face of challenges (not giving up)
- Asset-based thinking: Identifying the strengths of a person or situation, using a person’s
strengths (assets) to reach positive outcomes and looking for strengths even if they are
not immediately visible
- Interpersonal awareness: Trying to understand another person’s perspective on a problem
or situation and considering the impact of one’s words and actions on others
b. Games specifically designed for preservice teachers:
In the literature, there are studies of games geared towards preservice teachers. However, most of
these studies were designed to capture attitudes of preservice teachers about game play in
teaching, or about teaching the core content, not teaching about the teaching profession. For
instance Kennedy-Clark (2011) investigated pre-service teacher attitudes towards to the use of
virtual worlds in science education. Preservice teachers were introduced to Virtual Singapura, a
multi-user virtual environment, and completed an open-ended questionnaire. The results showed
that gender and prior computer game use were likely to affect the perceived benefits of using
virtual worlds in the classroom setting, and preservice teachers’ willingness to use virtual games
in their own future classrooms. Anderson and Barnett (2011) researched the impact of a game
called Supercharged! on pre-service teachers’ understanding of electromagnetic concepts
compared to students who were provided with a more traditional inquiry-oriented lesson on the
same concepts. The control group learned through a series of guided inquiry methods while the
experimental group played Supercharged! The authors reported a significant difference on prepost gains, but less self-reported knowledge of topic in the gaming group compared to the control
group. The authors suggested using metacognitive techniques within the game to reinforce that
students were, in fact, engaged in an educational learning experience.
Current study
Participants:
Participants will be approximately 100 preservice teachers in their junior year of the teacher
preparation program. The participants have not previously been exposed to playing games for
learning during their preservice teacher training.
Method and Procedure:
The study is an experimental study with experiment (game play) and control conditions. The
sections will be randomly assigned to one of the two conditions. The experiment will take place
during two class periods in January and February 2013 of the 396-Field Experience course. All
course instructors will be provided with a detailed instructor guide and training respective to
their condition. The researchers will visit all the sections to observe the fidelity of instructors to
the instructor guide, and identical application of procedures in all sections. After the experiment
is complete, control sections will be provided with the opportunity to play the game.
Materials:
Teacher Leader: Pursuit of Professionalism game. The game will be used in course sections
assigned to the experimental condition. See figure 1 for screen shots from the game. The game
play group will be play the game during the 2nd class meeting, and the control group will be
exposed to the same content through traditional methods (lecture, discussion) that presents the
content through an instructor led environment. Both groups will be exposed to the same content
and for the same amount of time.
Pretest and Posttest. All sections will be given the same pretest in class session 2, and posttest in
session 3 designed by the experts in the teacher education field. The pretest and posttest contain
four questions to assess knowledge of the professionalism terms, and another question on
applying knowledge to analyze a given case.
Attitude survey. The attitude survey contains 15 Likert questions and two open-ended questions.
The survey will be given to both groups. The attitude survey focuses on students’ confidence in
learning these concepts through the game or class instruction, their likeliness to use the
professionalism competencies in their real world internship placement or future classrooms.
Two open ended question focuses on best and least-liked parts of the game play or the class
instruction.
Discussion:



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The effectiveness of game play versus traditional classroom instruction while teaching
professionalism.
The effects of game play on preservice teachers attitudes about professionalism
Advantages and limitations of embedding a virtual environment into preservice teaching
curriculum
How to teach preservice teachers about professionalism competencies, and behaviors that
will lead them to success in their teaching.
Figure 1. Screen shots from Teacher Leader: Pursuit of Professionalism.
References:
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