In extended reality, disruptive behavior in educational situations can be simulated in a lifelike manner. Accordingly, this digital technology could be used to learn how to perceive and deal with disruptions of teaching.
The situation of being interrupted and disturbed while trying to teach or explain something is part of everyday life in various educational settings. Such disruptions are manifold: giggling, tootling, leaving without permission, mutual pushing, inappropriate non-verbal behavior or similar. We are developing an "Immersive Teaching Simulator" in which future educational professionals can practice coping with such disruptions in mixed reality (MR), which is a type of extended reality.. The goals of this digital tool are twofold: First, future educational professionals should be able to practice challenging situations using VR in simulated educational settings that are close to everyday life. The second goal is to investigate how teachers deal with disruptions (coping). For this purpose, we will examine how teachers deal with different disruptions and how they find their way back to their actual task (imparting knowledge) after disruptions.