Breaking Bad Behavior

In the project Breaking Bad Behavior, a concept is developed and empirically evaluated to advance classroom management competencies of preservice teachers in an interdisciplinary collaboration of media pedagogy and Human-Computer-Interaction. Also, a fully immersive classroom is developed and empirically validated.

In the context of this interdisciplinary project "Breaking Bad Behavior", the team from the chair of School Pedagogy developed a concept to advance classroom management competencies of preservice teachers using a cirtual classroom, based on theory. The concept was implemented within an action-oriented educational research approach in school pedagogical studies and evaluated with regards to the achievement of objectives and potential side effects.

The interdisciplinary collaboration was realized by applying a design-based research cycle with consideration of the model of responsive evaluation and also in close connection to the HCI-oriented user-centered design processes. In the user-centered design process, the necessary technological developments were advanced by iterative prototypes, considering future users closely, and tested and optimized with regards to general and XR-specific criteria of usability and user experience. This way, a virtual classroom was developed with 24 semi-autonomous avatars and relevant XR impact factors of immersion, presence and embodiment were evaluated.

In 2018, the project won the FraMediale price in the category "Best-practice or future projects with digital media by higher education lecturers".

Report in the JMU EINBLICK magazine [German only]
Project video [German only]

In 2020, Christian Seufert was awarded with the "Lehrpreis der Fakultät für Humanwissenschaften der Universität Würzburg".

Funding: Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg

Duration: seit 2015

Christian Seufert: Advancing classroom management competencies of preservice teachers using a virtual classroom. Practice and theory-oriented development and evaluation of a concept for higher education.

Prof. Dr. Silke Grafe

Chair of School Pedagogy
Oswald-Külpe-Weg 82

97074 Würzburg

Building: 82

Room: 03.014

Phone: +49 931 31-81535

Email: silke.grafe@uni-wuerzburg.de

Office Hours: by appointment

[Translate to Englisch:] Prof.in Dr. Silke Grafe

Christian Seufert

Seufert, C., Oberdörfer, S., Roth, A., Grafe, S., Lugrin, J.-L., & Latoschik, M. E. (2022). Classroom management competency enhancement for student teachers using a fully immersive virtual classroom. Computers & Education, 179, 104410. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104410
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The purpose of this study is to examine whether pre-service teachers studying classroom management (CM) in a virtual reality (VR)-supported setting enhance their CM competencies more than students do in a setting using conventional methods. With this aim in mind and to address a lack of available situations of practicing and reflecting CM competencies besides simply gaining theoretical knowledge about CM in education, we integrated a novel fully immersive VR application in selected CM courses. We evaluated the development of self-assessed and instructor-rated CM competencies and the learning quality in the different learning conditions. Additionally, we evaluated the presence, social presence, believability and utility of the VR application and the VR-assisted and video-assisted course. Participants were pre-service teachers (n = 55) of the University of Würzburg who participated in a quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test intervention. The students were randomly assigned to one of two intervention groups: the test group used the virtual classroom Breaking Bad Behaviors (BBB) during the term (n = 39), and the comparison group’s learning was video-assisted (n = 16). The instructor rating shows significant differences between the VR group and the video group, the two points of measurement and for the interaction between the condition and time of measurement. It demonstrates a highly significant improvement in CM competencies in the VR setting between the pre-test and post-test (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.06) as compared to the video-based setting. The participants of the VR setting themselves rated their CM competencies in the post-test significantly higher than in the pre-test (p = 0.02, Cohen’s d = 0.39). Interestingly, the video group also rated themselves better in the post-test (p = 0.02, Cohen’s d = 0.67), which reveals that self-assessment and external assessment show different results. In addition, we observed that even if both groups gained similar theoretical knowledge, the CM competencies developed to a greater degree in the VR-based settings. The participants rated the CM training system a useful tool to evaluate and reflect on individual teacher actions. Its immersion contributes to a high presence and the simulation of realistic scenarios in a CM course. These findings suggest that VR-based settings can lead to a higher benefit in the enhancement of pre-service teachers’ CM competencies.
Seufert, C. M., & Grafe, S. (2020). Förderung der Klassenführungskompetenzen von Lehramtsstudierenden unter Verwendung eines virtuellen Klassenzimmers. MedienPädagogik: Zeitschrift für Theorie Und Praxis Der Medienbildung, 39(Orientierungen), 142–169. https://doi.org/10.21240/mpaed/39/2020.12.09.X
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Klassenführungskompetenzen sind bedeutsam für professionelles Handeln von Lehrpersonen. Die systematische Förderung der Klassenführungskompetenzen von Lehramtsstudierenden stellt ein Desiderat dar. Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird eine praxis- und theorieorientierte Entwicklung und Evaluation eines pädagogischen Konzeptes zur Förderung der Klassenführungskompetenzen von Lehramtsstudentinnen und -studenten in der Hochschullehre unter Verwendung eines vollimmersiven virtuellen Klassenzimmers vorgestellt. Auf der Basis einer Analyse theoretischer und empirischer Grundlagen zur Klassenführung und zu pädagogischen Konzepten zu deren Förderung unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Potenziale von virtueller Realität (VR) wird ein Konzept für die Hochschullehre entwickelt. Im Konzept sind ein handlungsorientierter Ansatz und die Verwendung eines vollimmersiven Klassenzimmers bedeutsame Vorgehensweisen. Eine quasiexperimentelle Evaluationsstudie im Prä- und Posttestdesign bestätigt die höhere Wirksamkeit der Intervention im Vergleich zu einem handlungsorientierten Vorgehen ohne Einsatz eines virtuellen Klassenzimmers sowie zu einem Vorgehen, bei dem ausschliesslich die Erarbeitung von wissenschaftlicher Literatur zur Klassenführung zum Einsatz kam.
Latoschik, M. E., Lugrin, J.-L., Habel, M., Roth, D., Seufert, C., & Grafe, S. (2016). Breaking Bad Behavior: Immersive Training of Class Room Management. Proceedings of the 22Nd ACM Conference on Virtual Reality Software and Technology, 317-318. https://doi.org/10.1145/2993369.2996308
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This article presents a fully immersive portable low-cost Virtual Reality system to train classroom management skills. An instructor controls the simulation of a virtual classroom populated with 24 semi-autonomous virtual agents via a desktop-based graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI provides behavior control and trainee evaluation widgets alongside a non-immersive view of the class and the trainee. The trainee's interface uses an Head-Mounted Display (HMD) and earphones for output. A depth camera and the HMD's built-in motion sensors are used for tracking the trainee and for avatar animation. An initial evaluation of both interfaces confirms the system's usefulness, specifically its capability to successfully simulate critical aspects of classroom management.
Lugrin, J.-L., Latoschik, M., Habel, M., Roth, D., Seufert, C., & Grafe, S. (2016). Breaking Bad Behaviors: A New Tool for Learning Classroom Management Using Virtual Reality. Frontiers in ICT, 3. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3389/fict.2016.00026
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This article presents an immersive virtual reality (VR) system for training classroom management skills, with a specific focus on learning to manage disruptive student behavior in face-to-face, one-to-many teaching scenarios. The core of the system is a real-time 3D virtual simulation of a classroom populated by twenty-four semi-autonomous virtual students. The system has been designed as a companion tool for classroom management seminars in a syllabus for primary and secondary school teachers. This will allow lecturers to link theory with practice using the medium of VR. The system is therefore designed for two users: a trainee teacher and an instructor supervising the training session. The teacher is immersed in a real-time 3D simulation of a classroom by means of a head-mounted display and headphone. The instructor operates a graphical desktop console, which renders a view of the class and the teacher whose avatar movements are captured by a marker less tracking system. This console includes a 2D graphics menu with convenient behavior and feedback control mechanisms to provide human-guided training sessions. The system is built using low-cost consumer hardware and software. Its architecture and technical design are described in detail. A first evaluation confirms its conformance to critical usability requirements (i.e., safety and comfort, believability, simplicity, acceptability, extensibility, affordability, and mobility). Our initial results are promising and constitute the necessary first step toward a possible investigation of the efficiency and effectiveness of such a system in terms of learning outcomes and experience.

Breaking Bad Behavior

Prof. Dr. Silke Grafe

Christian Seufert

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