Leveraging Mixed-Reality Technology to Assess and Develop Teachers’ Skills to Detect, Prevent, and Respond to Bullying

Purpose: Bullying is a commonly-experienced form of aggression experienced by students in schools and has widespread and far-reaching academic, mental health, and behavioral impacts. Unfortunately, teachers struggle to detect bullying and rarely implement effective preventive and responsive strategies in their classrooms. Extant literature suggests that ongoing supports such as coaching are often needed to promote lasting and meaningful teacher behavior changes; often absent from such coaching is experiential practice opportunities. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development of mixed-reality scenarios carried out by the TeachLivE simulator technology. These practice opportunities have been embedded into a coaching intervention that is currently being tested in an 80-teacher randomized controlled trial (RCT).

Method: Focus groups with students and teachers were conducted to assist with the initial conceptualization of the intervention; these focus groups also identified gaps in teacher skills and areas where the greatest buy-in could be generated, which in turn informed the development of scenarios to be used in the simulator. Using the ADDIE model of systematic instructional design, we iteratively analyzed, designed, developed, implemented, and evaluated our TeachLivE scenarios. Implementation and evaluation was completed with pilot teachers and among the research and coaching staff prior to the initiation of the RCT. Because there were four scenarios to be implemented throughout the intervention, refinements to later scenarios were made based on earlier experiences within the RCT. The goal was to develop scenarios that provide enough exposure to bullying behaviors to practice new strategies, without being too intense, unrealistic, and thus, disengaging. For assessment purposes, a standardized scenario, which pre-indicated the precise number and forms of aggression, was also developed.

Results: This presentation will include a depiction of the bullying and aggression behavior matrix developed for the mixed-reality avatars to engage upon both for assessment and practice sessions. A mapping of the practice sessions that address detection, responding, prevention, and the integration of these skills will also be provided. Finally, a video clip of the mixed-reality scenarios will be shared so that participants can experience the technology first-hand.

Conclusions: Technology is a powerful tool that can assist in our prevention of aggressive and violent behaviors. This paper highlights one way in which mixed-reality simulation can be leveraged to improve teacher detection of, prevention of, and responding to bullying in schools. Although not a main aim of this paper, preliminary outcome analyses of the entire packaged coaching intervention will be briefly discussed.