Press START to Teach – Can Simulation Games Close the Theory-Practice Gap?

Background Student teachers commonly struggle to apply theoretical knowledge to their teaching. This theory-practice gap is a serious problem in teacher education. Over the past decade, simulations and serious games have been shown as an effective way to practice the transfer of theoretical knowledge in authentic settings of skill-use. Approximating theory-based teaching practice via repeated use of simulation games, thus, may be able to close the theory-practice gap in teacher education. Aim We aimed to assess whether repeatedly engaging with simulated teaching and theory-based feedback would improve student teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, transfer of theories into teaching situations and their perceived usefulness of theories. Method N = 86 student teachers learned twice with either a digital simulation game depicting decision-making in the classroom (simulation condition) or with screenshots of the game (control condition). After each phase, student teachers received theory-based feedback about (their) teaching. Results Against our hypothesis, there were no changes in both conditions regarding student teachers’ teaching self-efficacy, perceived usefulness of theories for practice, or integration of theory-based arguments into practical reasoning. Nonetheless, we found positive effects for learning time and motivation favoring the simulation condition. Conclusion Our results point towards the motivating potential of simulation games that was, however, not sufficient to close the theory-practice gap. It seems that the theory-practice integration within the simulation game needs to be even stronger to reveal the desired effects, which needs to be subject to further research.