Abstract Content (up to 300 words recommended)
Teachers who can think on their feet and make responsive changes to their instructional practice are not being explicitly developed within higher education contexts (Jaeger, 2013). New applications of technology such as manipulable, 360-degree video can afford beginning teachers with the opportunity to explicitly develop skills needed to reflect-in-action. Placing beginning teachers in realistic, perceptually immersive visualisation settings including the half-sphere iDome (which fills the users peripheral field of vision), allows them to reflectively examine classroom scenarios from a situated perspective and to increase their ability to ‘notice’ aspects of practice that have particular significance in educational settings—professional vision (Sherin & Van Es, 2009). The perceptual immersion in the dynamic evolving context enables them to examine their own responses to classroom situations and learn to metacognitive control their own responses in context, – all within a safe environment. Such settings develop the ability to ‘read’ the information that is produced in the moment (Schön, 1987). They can also enable beginning teachers to complement the more intentional and cognitive aspects of reflection with a sense of body awareness (Kinsella, 2007; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999) allowing tacit knowledge to inform actions on the fly - much like what a teacher would do in a real classroom setting.
This paper argues that teacher education can draw on technologies that explicitly address perceptual and embodied aspects of professional vision to produce teachers with the capability to reflect in action. It highlights the significance of providing opportunities for pre-service teachers to reflect within settings that invoke similar emotional and perceptual responses that they might experience in real contexts to develop resilient, work-ready teachers. The paper also highlights the comparative advantages of 360-degree video over similar technologies such as virtual reality in prompting context-specific abilities to reflect in action with implications for higher education in general.
Addressing the theme/s of the Conference (up to 200 words recommended)
Varied visualisations of 360-degree video such as web interfaces, projections onto iDomes or virtual reality goggles create differing levels of immersion and increasingly embodied experiences that can be utilised to scaffold transition from the university setting to work contexts. Contextual exposure can increase resilience, positively impacting retention due to work readiness. New professionals can also be better prepared and are therefore much more employable. Industry can also use such technology to create context specific awareness during induction. Distance education students can also benefit from access to exemplary immersive contexts that provide understanding that unavailable in their local context.
The effectiveness of 360-degree video for professional training can be seen through a number of methods. The affordances and significance of the use of immersive video to any profession must be established. Think-aloud protocols can be used for such purposes. Comparision with other immersive technologies in interventionist studies to interrogate workplace practices can indicate if reflection in action is selectively enhanced. Longitudinal studies across higher education settings can indicate gradual development of situated, spatial and temporal skills specific to professional vision.