AIMER

Abstract

Elementary school classrooms are emotionally stressful environments, for both students and teachers. Successful teachers use strategies that regulate students' emotions and behaviors while also controlling their own emotions (stress, nervousness). To prepare teachers for the challenges of teaching, teacher training should include emotional and behavioral management strategies. Virtual Training Environments (VTEs) are effective at providing experiences and increasing learning in many domains. Creating VTEs for teachers can improve student learning and teacher retention. We introduce our current research aimed at integrating emotionally-intelligent virtual students within a 3D classroom training system. In our simulation, virtual students' emotional states will be determined from an appraisal process of actions taken by the teacher trainee in the virtual classroom. Virtual students will then display the appropriate non-verbal behaviors and react to the teacher accordingly. We present the first steps required to implement our proposed architecture which are based on appraisal theory of emotions and emotion regulation theory.