Simulation training-a boost for pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs

The purpose of this study was to examine how two kinds of teaching training can affect preservice teachers’ efficacy beliefs in teaching mathematics and conducting classroom management. The preservice teachers practised teaching either for three hours with avatar in a simulation followed by three weeks of fieldwork or for three hours with peers in seminars followed by three weeks of fieldwork. The avatar training and the peer training were combined with feedback from fellow preservice teachers and two experts. The results show that the efficacy beliefs of the preservice teachers who practised with avatars in the simulation were significantly higher than for those who practised with peers. The avatar training gave a boost effect before the fieldwork for one group of preservice teachers. Possible reasons for this might be that training with avatars enables students to experience the four factors highlighted by Bandura: enactive mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, and physiological and affective states. Thus, the results indicate that short periods of intense training with avatars combined with feedback from experts can enhance students’ efficacy beliefs significantly. In this sense, simulation training seems to help preservice teachers to become better prepared and confident during their fieldwork.