PECASE: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Teacher Education: Guided Interactive Virtual Environments (GIVEs) for Case-Based Learning

University Of New Mexico, Albuquerque NM

Investigators

Abstract

Proposal Title: PECASE: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Practice in Teacher Education: Guided Interactive Virtual Environments (GIVEs) for Case-Based Learning Institution: University of New Mexico The purpose of this PECASE proposal is to study how to help science teachers prepare to think effectively and apply principles of educational psychology to classroom experiences. The author expects it to contribute to understanding of the cognitive processes that support the teacher efforts to solve novel and complex problems in the classroom. The project also has implications for the design of educational technology that promote student higher level reasoning skills through case studies. In particular, this project is expected to help show ways of meeting the needs of the New Mexico schools with large populations of Native American and other minorities. She would develop virtual environments for preparing teachers with case learning so that cognitive skills are learned as concrete procedures in the context of everyday life. The virtual environments allow a focus on a few issues at a time thus reducing the cognitive load on the teachers. This study will explore several hypotheses about how case-based methods provide higher order thinking skills that help students solve problems. The researcher will collect data from teachers on student performance by following three cohorts of students for 3-years each. The cohorts will be pre-service teachers in year 3 of the project and will be followed into their classrooms as teachers. One cohort will serve as a control group to the others that will go through the training program developed by the investigator. Education Plan The investigator's career plans are directly related to the project outlined in this PECASE proposal. The investigator is interested in how people think and learn and how to apply that knowledge to classrooms. This project is very closely woven into the investigators career plans. As she noted in an e-mail to L Suter on December 12, 2002, this project is a "direct reflection of my interest in teaching, which stems from my commitment to research how people think and learn." The materials will be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum that she teaches and she plans to offer special graduate classes based on the result of her research. This project was originally funded as a CAREER award, and was converted to a Presidential Early Career Award for Engineers and Scientists (PECASE) award in September 2004.