Educational Testing Service (ETS) is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to contribute to a multi-year study focused on developing a suite of practice-based activities for synchronous and asynchronous integration within online and face-to-face elementary and secondary mathematics and science education courses to help preservice teachers learn how to facilitate argumentation-focused discussions.
The practice-based activities include: (1) interactive, online digital games that create targeted practice spaces to engage preservice teachers in considering and responding to students’ content-focused ideas and interactions; (2) performance-based tasks that provide opportunities for preservice teachers to practice facilitating discussions with a group of five upper elementary student avatars in a simulated classroom; and (3) a virtual reality environment that allows for verbal, textual and non-verbal interactions between a teacher avatar and 24 student avatars in an immersive whole classroom environment. Support materials will complement each of the three activities to help teacher educators productively use and integrate these activities into their mathematics and science methods course.
The overall research project is a collaboration between multiple partners at ETS, Indiana University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Towson University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Those interested in this position may learn more at the full announcement, here.