Comenius Teaching Fellow grant for project 'Keeping order in a Virtual Kindergarten Classroom'

UG researcher Jolien Mouw has received a Comenius Teaching Fellow grant for the project 'Keeping order in a Virtual Kindergarten Classroom'. The Comenius is a grant programme for educational innovation projects by the KNAW. This project is al collaboration between Jolien Mouw (GION), Marjon-Fokkens Bruinsma (Teacher Education), Andrea Snippe (student AOLB) and the CIT led by Gert-Jan Verheij. The Virtual Reality learning environment will be implemented in the course Developmental and Educational Psychology.

Many pre-service teachers feel they are insufficiently prepared for effectively managing disruptive behaviors, especially when learning is situated in a dynamic setting such as a kindergarten. Moreover, they find it challenging to translate scientific theories on classroom management into every day kindergarten teaching practices.

Therefore, the main aim of the project 'Keeping order in a Virtual Kindergarten Classroom' is to develop and evaluate an innovative and interactive Virtual Reality kindergarten environment in which students of the Academic Teacher Training Program (AOLB) can safely experiment with different classroom management strategies. Integrating the professional field into the academic curriculum in this virtual yet realistic way helps prospective teachers to develop good pre-school management skills during the training.