William Waychunas, Tegan Nusser
Abstract
Practice-based teacher education [PBTE] approaches that use activities such as simulations or rehearsals are increasingly popular. However, understanding is limited about how the design aspects, including activity framing, frequency, associated assignments, and feedback routines, impact preservice teachers’ [PSTs’] instructional development. We look across content areas and between elementary and secondary grade-level bands to investigate: What aspects of role-play teaching simulations’ instructional designs do PSTs find most impactful for their instructional development? Utilizing data from interviews and instructor observations, this qualitative case study examines how PBTE design features facilitate preservice teacher (PST) learning of core practices through role-playing simulations. Participants saw role-play simulations as instrumental in their growth, noting that the frequency and length of simulations provided multiple opportunities to learn from classmates and apply lessons learned from previous rehearsals in a community of practitioners focused on learning with and from one another. Additionally, PSTs highlighted the role of the course instructor in framing activities as formative, especially through grading and feedback practices, and structures to help create a more authentic teaching environment, moving such activities away from simple lesson-plan presentations and toward more realistic enactments.
Recommended Citation
Waychunas, W. & Nusser, T. (2026). The devil’s in the details: Instructional design and the impact of role-play teaching simulations or rehearsals. Midwest Journal of Education, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.69670/mje.3.1.5
DOI
Corresponding Author
William Waychunas, Assistant Professor, Social Studies Teacher Education, Bradley University, 1501 W. Bradley Avenue, Peoria, IL 61625-0002
Email: [email protected]
ORCid: 0000-0002-8928-8527