Source: star-telegram.com

By: Gene Trainor

One student is putting on lipstick in class while another has headphones on. A third student talks to his friend sitting next to him.

The teacher’s challenge: Try to engage these teenagers.

When the teacher suggests that the students do a worksheet, a girl puts her head on the desk.

So begins a computer program designed to prepare teachers for the modern youngster and help stem the flight of educators from the nation’s classrooms.

Fewer than half of first-time teachers remain in the field for more than three years, said Tandra Tyler-Wood, associate professor of educational psychology at the University of North Texas. And the rate is even lower for special-education teachers.

So UNT researchers are studying the simSchool program with a three-year, $300,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. Future teachers play what amounts to a game where they must respond to simulated classroom situations and students with a range of characteristics. The results look promising.

“I think it lets teachers see that you’re not going to be successful with all children all the time,” said Tyler-Wood, who is leading the research. “You’re going to have to try different things to become a successful teacher.”

‘It’s like life’

Teachers often leave the field because they don’t believe they’re in control of their classrooms or meeting student needs, Tyler-Wood said.

“They don’t have the skills to keep children on task and to keep them from having discipline problems,” she said. “That’s where simSchool comes into play.”

In simSchool, developed by David Gibson, a Vermont entrepreneur, prospective teachers are given profiles of students or can make up their own. Characteristics include expected academic performance, openness to learning and emotional stability. They can also factor in whether students have difficulty seeing, hearing or moving their bodies.

Teachers choose from a number of lessons and then see how students respond. Teachers can also interact with students in several ways. If they want to go over last week’s lesson, some students will ask to go to the bathroom. Some will do homework from another class. Some will ask their neighbor whether they’re in a remedial class.

The program ends with a graph that follows the effectiveness of the assignment and the teacher’s comments with each student. Prospective teachers usually start off with no more than five students, but they can teach up to 18.

The program gives no grades, however.

“It’s like life: There’s no perfect answer for everything,” Tyler-Wood said.

Research shows that prospective teachers who used simSchool rated their teaching skills 30 percent higher than those who didn’t use it. Users were also 41 percent more confident that they could teach students regardless of outside factors, such as home environment.

UNT senior Amber Ellison, 24, plans to teach math to middle school students after she graduates in December. She said the program prepares prospective teachers for the variety of ways students learn and behave.

“It helps you see how much attention you need to pay to each individual student,” said Ellison, who has written a paper on simSchool.

‘Such a big range’

The study began in October 2008. Much of it focused on students with special needs, such as those with seeing and hearing disabilities. Teachers will need to adapt to such students because more schools are integrating them into regular classrooms, Tyler-Wood said.

Denton special-education teacher Brenda Barrio, who received her master’s degree from UNT in December, said teachers sometimes don’t know what to expect when they start their careers.

“I would have never thought there would be such a big range of behaviors in one classroom,” said Barrio, who is now translating simSchool into Spanish.

The researchers, about a dozen in all, have recently introduced science assignments to try to understand why so many students find science boring and difficult. Through the program, prospective teachers might better understand how to tailor lessons to keep students engaged and interested in what they’re learning.

“We’re losing females,” Tyler-Wood said. “We’re losing students with disabilities. We’re losing English-language learners. We’re also losing average kids. They’re not going into science.”

Though the study has funding only through next year, Tyler-Wood hopes to find money to continue the research.

“I think what simSchool is allowing teachers to do is to mature a bit more rapidly,” she said. “Maybe that will give them the skills that they need to keep them in the field as opposed to having them meet with failure the first couple of years out there and saying, ‘Wow, this is just not working for me.’ ”