Digital Solutions in Educators' Training: Concept for Implementing a Virtual Reality Simulator

Abstract

Over the past decade virtual reality technologies have been actively introduced into all spheres of life, affecting, among other things, the education sector. The purpose of this study is to develop a concept introducing a virtual reality simulator into educators' training. The underlying principle of the study is to design a virtual reality environment that, firstly, facilitates the development of conflict resolution competence for the students of pedagogical faculties, and secondly, facilitates its performance evaluation. In this article, approaches to design such a virtual reality simulator are discussed. The purpose of the simulator is to develop conflict resolution competences that are indispensable to future teachers. Besides the current study presents a set of situational cases, that are possible to resolve in a virtual reality environment. The resolution of those cases will help future teachers to prevent conflicts as well as to determine their behaviour in pre-conflict and conflict situations. The components of conflict resolution competence that are possible to develop with the help of the designed virtual reality simulator have been defined. The conducted study has also identified approaches to evaluate the effectiveness of conflict resolution competence development.