The Effects of Classroom Management Efficacy on Interest Development in Guided Role-Playing Simulations for Sustainable Pre-Service Teacher Training

Classroom management is an essential yet frequently under-practiced competency in undergraduate teacher education, with important implications for sustainable teacher preparation. This study investigated whether pre-service teachers who feel more capable of managing classrooms also engage more deeply with simulation-based training. Fifty-seven Korean pre-service teachers (15 men, 42 women), all undergraduate students enrolled in a secondary teacher education program at a college of education, completed a five-item classroom-management-efficacy scale, then experienced a 15 min branching simulation that required choosing recognition, punishment, or aggression strategies in response to a disrespectful virtual student. Interest was assessed immediately afterwards with a 24-item instrument covering the four phases of the interest-development model (triggered situational, maintained situational, emerging individual, and well-developed individual). A post-test comparative design and MANOVA revealed that efficacy level had a significant multivariate effect on overall interest (Wilks Λ = 0.78, p = 0.029, partial η 2 = 0.12). Scheffe contrasts showed that high-efficacy participants outscored their low-efficacy peers on maintained situational and emerging individual interest, p < 0.05, and surpassed the middle-efficacy group in three of the four phases. Repeated measures ANOVA confirmed a general decline from situational to individual interest across all groups (F (3, 52) = 9.23, p < 0.01), underscoring the difficulty of converting short-term curiosity into lasting commitment. These findings position classroom-management efficacy as a key moderator of engagement and support the use of adaptive simulations as sustainable tools for teacher education. By tailoring challenge levels and feedback to participants’ efficacy, guided simulations can foster deeper engagement and promote individualized growth—helping build resilient and well-prepared educators.