Simulated classroom instruction
Effects of adaptive feedback bots in the simulated classroom on procedural professional knowledge
In addition to theoretical knowledge transfer, university teacher training also includes practice-oriented phases that enable student teachers to apply the knowledge they have acquired in an academic context. However, it is clear that a stronger practical orientation during the course would be desirable. Here, the use of simulated learning environments could offer the opportunity to embed knowledge in a concrete action situation and thus enable the practical application of knowledge. The Simulated Biology Classroom (SKRBio) was developed to simulate interactions between (future) biology teachers and their students. Within this digital learning environment, student teachers can ask questions to virtual pupils, who respond based on their pre-set individual ability and trait profiles. The student teachers' assessments of the virtual pupils' answers allow conclusions to be drawn about their procedural subject-specific, didactic and pedagogical knowledge. The current technical implementation of the SKRBio makes it possible to measure the procedural professional knowledge of prospective teachers, but neglects specific support measures during processing. This is where the project "FiSK - Effects of adaptive feedback bots in the simulated classroom on procedural professional knowledge" comes in, in which the SKRBio is extended by an AI-based bot system that reacts either directly to requests from student teachers or automatically on the basis of defined algorithms in the SKRBio. These feedback bots provide adaptive feedback on the student teachers' performance within the SKRBio and thus accompany their activities in the simulated learning environment.
The aims of the FiSK project are
- the development of a feedback bot based on AI-based approaches and theory-driven competence models,
- the implementation of these feedback bots in the SKRBio in order to provide student teachers with adaptive feedback to promote procedural professional knowledge,
- to identify learning-promoting effects of the feedback bot in the SKRBio,
- extend the SKRBio to other subject areas (e.g. experimentation, argumentation) and finally
- to integrate the developed support system of classroom simulation and feedback bot into university teaching.
