Innovative Approaches to Language Teacher Education: The Metaverse
TL;DR
The findings indicate that the pre-service teachers gained teaching experience within the metaverse environment and enhanced their awareness of online instruction by discovering creative ways of delivering lessons unique to the virtual space.
Abstract
This study contributes to the professional development of English language teacher candidates by enabling them to experience micro-teaching lesson study cycles implemented within a metaverse environment. The collaborative teacher development model, which has been practiced in schools for some time, was integrated with micro-teaching practices and structurally adapted to suit the dynamics of a virtual metaverse setting. Employing a case study design as part of qualitative research methodology, the study involved five English language teacher education students enrolled at a public university in Türkiye. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation notes, and group discussions, and were analysed qualitatively; the emerging themes and codes were interpreted by the researcher. The findings indicate that the pre-service teachers gained teaching experience within the metaverse environment and enhanced their awareness of online instruction by discovering creative ways of delivering lessons unique to the virtual space. In addition, participants articulated the strengths and weaknesses of transferring distance education into the metaverse and demonstrated a critical perspective toward its improvement. Furthermore, the results of the study offer a more comprehensive model for distance education as an alternative to current AI-driven approaches, pointing to a more feasible option in response to existing critiques of online education in the literature.