Teaching in a 3D Virtual World - Defining Teacher Practices

With the increase in distance and online teaching for mainstream schooling contexts, the advocacy of using a virtual world as a teaching and learning place has accelerated. Currently, there is no empirical evidence revealing the pedagogical elements defining teacher practices in virtual settings. This article reports on an exploratory study which contributes to defining virtual pedagogy. Six pre-service teachers and two researchers spent 20 hours exploring a three-dimensional virtual platform for its pedagogical appropriation. The pre-service teachers were asked to conduct a learning challenge for the other teacher-participants. An observation protocol was developed from an analysis of literature on the use of digital technologies and virtual worlds to identify specific teaching practices. Using video recordings of the learning challenges, a process of deductive and inductive categorisation occurred. Findings indicate that virtual teaching practices can be categorised by technology function; pedagogical approach, classroom organisation, teacher role and learner action; feedback and modality; and quality dimensions. The appropriation of the virtual place plays a role in defining teacher practices in the virtual classroom. These findings begin to represent and guide virtual teaching that has the potential to impact the quality of distance learning and learning in a classroom.