Conference Agenda

The current landscape of educational research is situated within what Morin (2020) defines as a “poly-crisis.” This term refers to a systemic and simultaneous entanglement of multiple emergencies affecting our society on a global scale: from post-pandemic fragilities to geopolitical instabilities, up to the climate crisis, which calls for a rethinking of collective life. This complexity does not operate in isolation; rather, it reverberates across the different levels of the educational ecosystem described by Bronfenbrenner (2023). Such pressure drives institutions toward a progressive datafication of knowledge, in which learning is often reduced to measurable units (Williamson, 2017; Williamson et al., 2020). Within this context, the education of future teachers enrolled in the Degree Programme in Primary Education Sciences now stands at a crucial crossroads. On the one hand, there is a push toward performative standardisation, oriented toward the management of large cohorts through numerical indicators and automated testing. On the other hand, there emerges the need to preserve academic sincerity. This crisis of sincerity reflects the tension between the automation of assessment, represented by Computer-Based Assessment (CBA), and the need for knowledge that remains situated, authentic, and deeply critical. If, as Biesta (2021) argues, the essence of education lies in “subjectification” and in the recognition of students’ humanity, then summative assessment cannot - and must not -be reduced to a mere act of algorithmic or statistical measurement.

In the era of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the proliferation of fake news (Al-Rawahi & Al-Shammari, 2024; Drouiche, 2025), the central challenge of teaching professionalism lies in the ability to distinguish between the mere mechanical reproduction of data and the genuine acquisition of reflective competence (Fishman & Gardner, 2022). Within this framework, the present contribution proposes to analyse the oral examination not as an obsolete legacy of the past, nor as a condemnation of structured testing. On the contrary, objective tests are acknowledged as fundamental tools for ensuring standards of accountability, equity, and uniformity in the assessment of broad domains of knowledge. However, the oral examination is here investigated as a device of pedagogical resilience, necessary to complete and enrich the overall assessment profile.

While structured tests ensure bureaucratic efficiency and psychometric validity across extensive content areas, the oral examination functions as a glocal response (Sepúlveda Alzate, 1999). It represents a practice rooted in a solid local tradition that offers a macro-level solution to the fragmentation of the educational relationship. Indeed, evaluative dialogue allows for the emergence of that “professional knowledge” which inevitably eludes the binary cataloguing of Big Data: namely, critical argumentation skills, ethical stance, and the communicative competence of the future teacher. The oral examination therefore does not seek to replace objective tools but rather to integrate their epistemological limits, fostering a human encounter that takes shape as an act of institutional trust. From this perspective, the social responsibility of the researcher transcends the mere academic perimeter to take on the character of a conscious political action (Biesta, 2021). Documenting and defending the validity of dialogic assessment models through the analysis of Syllabi means resisting the drift toward a purely technocratic and faceless form of evaluation. In this view, the Syllabus ceases to be a cold bureaucratic requirement and becomes a manifesto of transparency. It turns into a genuine social contract that safeguards research autonomy and ensures depth of learning even in times of extreme uncertainty (Fullan et al., 2023). In conclusion, this study aims to demonstrate that safeguarding the oral assessment represents a forward-looking strategy. Such an approach is capable of ensuring the holistic quality of teacher education by integrating the effectiveness of large-scale.

The role of the contemporary educator has expanded significantly beyond subject instruction to encompass the holistic well-being of students (Wijaya et al., 2023). In recent years, the prevalence of student mental health issues, ranging from anxiety and depression to behavioral defiance, has risen globally (Auerbach et al., 2018), placing increasing demands on teachers to act as first responders in the educational ecosystem (Fitrianto, 2025; Gunawardena et al., 2024). While teachers are not expected to function as clinical therapists, they are increasingly required to possess the ability to distinguish students’ mental health problems, engage in empathetic dialogue, and be familiar with the procedural steps to manage these crises effectively (Dimitropoulos et al., 2021). Consequently, teacher education programs have begun to integrate school and counseling intervention skills, such as Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT), which equips teachers with actionable, future-oriented strategies to support at-risk students (Ohrt et al., 2020).

However, a critical pedagogical gap persists between possessing theoretical knowledge of these procedures and the ability to apply them in real-time (Ohrt et al., 2020). The acquisition of interpersonal skills requires repeated, deliberate practice. Yet, in teacher education, the lack of students for training purposes presents a profound ethical and logistical challenge (Arnaiz-Sánchez et al., 2023). It is unethical and potentially dangerous to use real teenager students experiencing genuine mental health crises as practice subjects for pre-service teachers. As a result, the standard method for practical training has traditionally been peer-to-peer role-play, where pre-service teachers take turns acting as the teacher and the student (Thompson et al., 2022).

While peer role-play is accessible, it often fails to provide lively or realistic practice. Peers, typically graduate classmates, struggle to authentically embody the developmental and emotional complexity of a K-12 student. Furthermore, peer interactions are frequently compromised by social desirability bias. For example, peers may be overly cooperative, hesitant to simulate genuine resistance, or prone to breaking character due to social awkwardness (Seery et al., 2021). This creates a training environment that is safe but lacks rigor. Pre-service teachers may execute the procedures correctly in a low-stakes peer setting and develop a sense of self-efficacy , but this confidence often proves fragile when faced with the unpredictability of a real classroom. The field is in need of a training modality that provides the safety of a simulation but the unpredictability and resistance of a real student.

Recent advancements in Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) offer a transformative solution to practice partners (Green et al., 2025). By moving beyond generic chatbots, educators can now utilize strictly engineered AI agents designed to act as specific student personas. Unlike a peer, the AI agent does not tire, does not judge, and does not break character. Crucially, it can be engineered to offer conditional cooperation, meaning it will only respond positively if the pre-service teacher correctly applies the designated intervention procedures (e.g., specific SFBT techniques).

This study explores the integration of such a Practical AI Agent into a postgraduate teacher education program in China. The course aims to prepare pre-service teachers, specifically those majoring in subject teaching, to identify and manage student mental health behaviors. Researcher posit that a strictly engineered AI agent acts as a high school student, creating an immersive environment that bridges the gap between theory and practice. The primary objective of this research is to evaluate whether training with a Practical AI Agent leads to superior knowledge acquisition and skill competence compared to traditional peer role-play, and to examine how this technology affects the alignment between the teachers' confidence and their actual competence.

The increasing digitalisation of education systems and the legally anchored requirement for inclusive education place high demands on teachers. Studies such as those by Fichtner et al. (2023) indicate that digitalisation constitutes one of the central challenges for the further development of schools and teaching. At the same time, the second periodic review of Germany under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN CRPD, 2023) highlights substantial deficits in the implementation of inclusive education.

Inclusion and digitalisation therefore need to be addressed jointly in classroom practice, as digital media can enable individualised learning pathways and may support the consideration of diverse learning prerequisites. Moreover, digital tools are discussed in the literature as offering significant potential to reduce barriers and promote participation for all students (e.g. Fichtner et al., 2023).

The successful implementation of inclusive digital teaching largely depends on teachers, who play a central role in creating learning environments that are both inclusive and digitally supported. In this context, pre-service teachers are of particular importance. As future educators, they play a key role in shaping future educational practice and institutional development with regard to accessibility and participation for all learners (Martin, 2020; Schröder & Schulz, 2024). To enable the effective realisation of inclusive digital teaching, pre-service teachers must be comprehensively prepared through appropriate training opportunities at universities and teacher education institutions (Böttinger & Schulz, 2023).

Conceptually, the study is situated within competence-oriented approaches to teacher professionalisation and research on inclusive pedagogy and digital competence development in teacher education. While numerous studies address either digital transformation or inclusive education in isolation, there is still a lack of systematic analyses examining how these two demands can be integrated within teacher education programmes (e.g. Beier & Czaja, 2023). In addition, there is limited research on how training programmes need to be designed in order to prepare students effectively, as implementation practices are often shaped individually by the respective institutions.

To address existing research gaps in the field of inclusive digital teacher professionalisation, a scoping review based on a systematic search strategy is conducted (Arksey & O’Malley, 2005; Newman & Gough, 2020). The aim of the review is to identify existing approaches to inclusive digital teacher education and to examine how these approaches are designed in practice. By jointly considering normative principles and empirical evidence, the review seeks to generate both theoretical and practical insights into the design of teacher education programmes. Particular attention is given to empirical studies that evaluate existing training offers and report effects, while conceptual contributions are analysed separately to map the field of programme designs.

The review addresses the following research questions:

1. Which training concepts for the inclusive digital professionalisation of pre-service teachers exist in German-speaking countries?
2. How are these concepts designed? And what evaluation results have been reported?

Overall, this review provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of research on inclusive digital teacher education in German-speaking contexts and offers valuable insights for the further development of pre-service teacher education programmes in an international and comparative perspective.