The paper explores the possibilities of a simulated virtual reality (VR) environment to support novice teachers in developing competencies for coping with stressful situations. The topic is part of dissertation research that focuses on 1) the stress management strategies of novice teachers in a VR training environment; 2) the design and evaluation of pedagogical VR simulations in an adaptive learning platform. The main research question is: What is the possibility of virtual reality in preparing novice teachers to cope with stressful situations?
Some fields of study for teacher preparation have limited opportunities to prepare for unexpected situations and social and other classroom-specificities (Butler & Monda-Amaya, 2016). Virtual simulated environments can address the need for practice in preparing novice and experienced teachers and provide different variations of learning environments, instant feedback, metrics (which are not obtainable in a real classroom), and a safe space for preparation (Dieker et al., 2015; Lamb & Etopio, 2020; McGarr, 2020)
Social, political, economic and accelerating technological challenges (e.g. distance education in times of pandemic or social inclusion of children from Ukraine in Czech schools) brings increased demands on novice teachers. They are a professional group at risk of stress loads leading to leaving the profession or burnout.
Through the presented research, we aim to contribute by engaging VR technology to train potential stressful teaching situations. A secondary aim of the research is to explore the potential for practising interactions in VR between the teacher and networks of support actors. These include the teaching assistant, the school psychologist, the social and special educator, the school prevention methodologist or the tandem teacher.
VR simulations are used in many different industries. A coherent methodology for implementing this technology in schools still needs to be included in a pedagogical context. Faculties educating teachers would get the opportunity of repeated training in a safe environment and the spectrum of social scenarios (various pedagogical situations) that VR technology offers. As disseminators of knowledge, teachers are vital actors in transferring work with this technology. The opportunity to reinforce (and simultaneously evaluate) novice teachers coping strategies in simulations might promote well-being and resilience (Ungar & Theron, 2020).
In the presented research, we understand VR as the illusion of being present in a digitally generated learning environment where we can act realistically and experience different situations (Radianti, et al. 2020). We do not understand the VR experience as a substitute for the real classroom but rather as an experience that can be integrated into the curriculum to support future teachers' development concerning developing different pedagogical strategies. It can also provide new practice opportunities.
VR simulations will provide a large amount of multidisciplinary data and metrics that will enhance humanities-oriented research, particularly on the negotiation strategies of educators and other educational support actors.
Furthermore, the research aims at a methodological concept of VR education, which needs to be noticed for the widespread dissemination of an attractive form of education through VR technology in schools (still significantly underrepresented in the Czech Republic). The design of scenarios in education will promote social-emotional learning.
The critical approaches to embracing VR in education are experimentalism, constructivism, somatic epistemology and cognitivism. The research pursues contemporary challenges, both methodological and technological (what and how features to incorporate into immersive VR to implement to make the simulation believable; e.g., eye contact of avatars using eye visualization - Eyetracking), as well as domain-oriented (what types of scenarios to create)

The research design combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and integrates knowledge from the humanities with design methods and analytical measurement of VR data. Quantitative data from measurements (gaze trekking, stress level) are being complemented by interviews, focus groups and self-reflection of the somatic-cognitive VR experience (qualitative). The data will help reveal hidden correlations and variables within interactions (formal and informal) in the simulation. Pre-test and post-test questionnaires are used to assess subjectively (evaluative and self-evaluative methods) one's pedagogical abilities or stress levels in different pedagogical situations. These data are collected over time and compared with each other. First and second-year students were contacted (outreach to approximately 600 learners); approximately 40 are involved in the data collection. The selection criteria were 1.) Willingness to engage in 2) Motivation to train in VR; 3) Length of teaching experience. At the current research stage, third-party software is being used, and the development of a custom VRTeach application is planned where applied research and human-computer interaction (HCI) design will be used. The software will be developed in an agile methodology using iterative and incremental principles to respond to changes and suggestions from participants and senior lecturers throughout the development cycle. VR scenarios (situations that novice teachers can experience) are designed on expert research and consultation with research participants. They will later be incorporated through a prototyping and interaction design method (user testing of the VR application) to maximize the authenticity of the proposed virtual environment. Each participant takes part in the simulation repeatedly over time. The analysis and interpretation of the data will lead to the development of a methodology in addition to the research itself. We see the following potential limitations of the research: The level of interactions in VR will not achieve sufficient plausibility to make the teachers exhibit behavioural patterns identical to those in a real classroom - for example, it will fail to detect automated behavioural patterns that are not socially desirable. Furthermore, the control of the application may create artificial barriers and, therefore, sources of frustration, so teachers will not be able to immerse themselves sufficiently in the situation. Another aspect is handling challenging/stressful interactions scenarios if the interactions are, for example, too flat, with low dynamics, or, vice versa, unrealistically dramatic.

Initial research data show that 1) Gaining experience in VR technology might enable teachers to work more effectively with this platform, given the growing trend of the Metaverse and other socio-technological challenges (2) VR technology allows the involvement of different actors through remote collaboration via network connections, (3) The collection of data (Learning Analytics) allowed to support learning through the interpretation of metrics that are not commonly available in the real interactions. The ability to remotely access a simulation has the potential to overcome various barriers associated with the need to be present or present in a particular physical space. The presented thus emphasizes the possibilities of extending competencies through VR to groups of people for whom this would otherwise be very difficult or completely inaccessible. Furthermore, with higher levels of immersion, VR avatars (digital representations of the user character in the simulation) can faithfully represent different physical attributes or socio-cultural backgrounds and thus support a diverse classroom environment. This research topic could overlap with other levels. As education is often feminized, the possibility of VR simulations enables the extension of pedagogical competencies to women (teachers) who, for example, have found themselves outside the teaching profession or undergraduate education due to maternal responsibilities. Compared to existing simulators, which usually allow only simple real-time or recorded observation or subjective feedback from teachers or visiting colleagues on the lessons, the research brings a sophisticated way of linking technologies that allow designing metrics and ways of evaluating them that give educators a basis for self-reflection based on "hard data": for example, the position of the headset, eye movements, responsiveness to students' verbalized requests. It also turns out that by analyzing these missing data in pedagogical research, we can reciprocally strengthen the systemic undergraduate training of actors in education, e.g. in faculties of education.

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