Teacher professional development for teaching with democracy simulations in secondary vocational education

We developed a teacher professional development (PD) program consisting of three meetings of four hours each. The PD program targets in-service teachers in secondary vocational education and focuses on four main outcomes: (1) teachers’ attitudes towards teaching democracy, (2) their self-efficacy in teaching democracy, (3) their attitudes towards teaching with simulations, and (4) their self-efficacy in teaching with simulations. The study uses a three-condition design. In the treatment condition, teachers participate in the PD program and subsequently teach up to eight lessons using simulations on politics, democracy, government, and decision-making (approximately 20 teachers). In control condition A, teachers do not receive the PD program but do teach the simulation-based lessons to their students (approximately 20 teachers). Teachers in the treatment condition and control condition A are randomly assigned. In addition, there is a second control condition (control condition B), which is non-randomized. Teachers in control condition B neither receive the PD program nor teach the simulation-based lessons (approximately 20 teachers). Teachers complete four surveys: (1) a pre-test (within one week before the PD program), (2) a post-test (within one week after the PD program), (3) a post-lessons survey (within one week after completing the simulation-based lessons), and (4) a retention test (two months after the lessons). Primary outcomes are teachers’ attitudes towards teaching democracy, teacher self-efficacy in teaching democracy, teachers’ attitudes towards teaching with simulations, and teacher self-efficacy in teaching with simulations. We will control for experience with teaching democracy/citizenship, experience with teaching with simulations, educational background, and the educational level at which they teach (level 1, 2, 3, and/or 4). In addition to examining the effects using questionnaires, five teachers from the treatment condition and five teachers from control condition A will be randomly selected. Each of these teachers will be observed twice while teaching the simulation lessons, focusing on: (a) whether they focus on the debriefing (rather than primarily on the initial explanation/pre-briefing); (b) how flexibly they respond to what happens in the classroom (with less emphasis on control); (c) the extent to which they make substantive/theoretical linkages (with less emphasis on student performance during the simulation); and (d) the extent to which they emphasise meaningfulness for the student (with less emphasis on assessment). In addition, these teachers will be interviewed after teaching the lessons, to discuss how they addressed these aspects in practice.