VIEWS & OPINION The benefit of experience: how to increase
student engagement with virtual reality Comment by GILLIAN RHODES, Chief Marketing Officer at Avantis Education, the home of ClassVR
According to EdGlossary, “student engagement refers to the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism, and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.” While increasing student engagement remains a core part of pedagogical approaches, there’s an established research base that looks at the importance of experiential learning, and emerging evidence that emotional learning plays a key role in students’ development.
Experiential and emotional learning in education
The concept of experiential learning and its benefits have been extensively researched and documented. One of the most widely used is the ‘Learning Pyramid’1, which shows that the more active a student is in their learning, the more average retention rates increase. Beyond this, the experiential learning cycle is one of the most influential approaches to learning. Pioneered by Kolb2, this four-step process denotes that learning is initiated by a concrete experience, which is then the catalyst for reflection, thinking and acting. Although a seemingly new research area, Moreland University3 provides an introduction to emotional engagement in an article which takes a steep dive into ‘deepening students’ emotional engagement’, noting that increased emotional engagement improves learning. Moreland believes emotional engagement is best encouraged by fostering dialogue-based over monologue-based classrooms. This would see students lead discussions, as opposed to the teacher. This student-centred approach to learning positions the teacher as facilitator as opposed to instructor. Evolving an emotional engagement strategy further, Moreland suggests using practices which develop emotional wellbeing around learning. So, while increasing student engagement remains a core teaching objective, when we unpack this further, this is best achieved by facilitating experiential and emotional learning.
How to bring experiential and emotional learning to the classroom
Historically, enabling students to actively participate in their learning was limited by geographical boundaries. As technology has evolved over the past three decades, the student learning experience has steadily progressed.
Early ways to learn would have been passive, with teachers lecturing in a monologue-based classroom and students reading textbooks. Fast forward to today, and most schools have access to STEM Labs, music and performance theatres, and well-being centres, all of which provide a greater opportunity for experiential and emotional learning. And when we look at the accessibility of VR for education today, it’s easier than ever to bring experiential and emotional learning to the classroom.
The advantages of VR in education, particularly for supporting experiential and emotional learning, are far reaching. Think about teaching climate change. Can a textbook engage with a student on an emotional level? Now, think about taking them on a journey to experience the impact of climate change for themselves. Using a VR
October 2023
headset and content designed specifically for your curriculum, you can transport students to the rainforest, and they can see for themselves the impact climate change has on different habitats.
Teachers can build on this experience to stimulate group discussions, creating a dialogue-based classroom that is student-centred – and known to increase engagement.
The role of VR in education today Schools around the world are harnessing the potential of VR in a diverse range of ways. While many are putting student engagement theory into practice with experiential learning, others are exploring more innovative ways to integrate VR into curriculum delivery, including using VR headsets with other classroom technologies.
The role that VR can play in supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) is also becoming increasingly clear. For Westhaven School in England, virtual reality is enabling teachers to meet the individual needs of students with autism by creating specific learning contexts. Using ClassVR to explore virtual worlds in their free time has led these students to have increased attention spans during lessons, making a positive impact on their development.
VR is also being widely used to build students’ cultural capital, which in turn helps to improve their life chances and social mobility. Schools with varied socio-economic statuses often teach students who haven’t had the opportunity to experience different countries or cultures due to financial constraints. Using virtual reality, these financial barriers are removed as students can explore anywhere in the world from the classroom. This is exactly what Allfarthing Primary School is doing. When considering the use of VR in school, increasing accessibility and building students’ cultural capital was a driving force behind the ultimate investment in ClassVR – which has been a huge success.
As more schools explore the potential of virtual reality and realise the wide-ranging benefits it delivers for students’ personal and educational development, the role of VR in education is expected to evolve even further.
However, for virtual reality to be truly engaging in the classroom, teachers need access to rich, inspiring, and quality content. A powerful hardware, software, and content combination that equips teachers with the tools they need to take students on a journey. A learning experience without limits in a world that knows no bounds.
References
1www.educationcorner.com/the-learning-pyramid. html#:~:text=Practice%20(by)%20doing,term%20to%20 long%2Dterm%20memory.
2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kolb%27s_experiential_learning
3
https://moreland.edu/resources/blog-insights/emotional- engagement-in-hybrid-learning
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