The Research
Goals:
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To develop an understanding of special education class management tactics for pre-service teachers
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To provide the experience of visiting special education classroom in Virtual Reality (VR) format
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To suggest a new type of professional development/ teacher training material in interactive VR experience
Background
The project began as a way to impact the lack of knowledge teachers have while coming into the classroom. What are ways that they could set up a classroom to impact their students in the greatest way? What kind of research based tools can they incorporate into their classrooms?
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Teacher credentialing programs for general subject teachers only require one 3-credit course on special education; however, the overview course gives an insufficient understanding in how to use the classroom as a way to impact special education students and students as a whole.
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Furthermore, without field experience, the situation general education teachers face everyday is a lack of knowledge and resources to help them with their classrooms. Ways to use their space specifically for their students and ideas on whats accessible for their communities. Thus, Grace and Kai thought it is crucial to find innovative methods for pre-service teachers to have experiences that can lead to enhanced understanding and preparation for integrated classrooms.
Where do we go from here?
Expanding 360 Classrooms to different countries and subjects.
During its development stage, the 360 special education classrooms were shared with several teachers from different parts of the world. All of them agreed that this would be an innovation to teacher training!
They requested more 360-classrooms from different parts of the world, including Finland, Australia, China, Singapore, and more!
We believe that connecting educators through the 360 Classrooms blog can give teachers from all over the world an opportunity to serve students better and share ideas.
To increase accessibility and understanding of the project, Grace and Kai created this website named Visit My Classroom. However, they think this space could be used in more exciting ways. It could serve as a community for educators to share their classrooms and chat about their class management tactics.