Abstract:

There has been increasing use of interactive technologies in the classroom today and a rising popularity of employing virtual environments as means to engage students in sensorially rich contexts for more embodied forms of experiential learning. In particular, virtual reality (VR) or immersive virtual environments (IVEs) facilitated by head-mounted displays (HMDs) have been used in the teaching of subject content such as history, geography and science. This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study of immersive technology, specifically immersive virtual environments (IVES), for the purpose of social and emotional learning (SEL), in the context of Character and Citizenship Education lessons in the Singapore classroom. The social-emotional competencies (SECs) focussed on in this project were social awareness, specifically empathy and perspective-taking, and responsible decision-making. The study involved a sample of n=75 students from a cohort of students in a Singapore school, averaged at 15 years of age. Students were randomly divided into three treatment conditions: IVEs, “pen-and-paper” mental simulation and video-viewing. Each treatment contained a problem scenario, told from a first-person perspective, involving a social and ethical dilemma young people in Singapore today face. A quasi-experimental, pre-test post-test, non-equivalent group design was employed and the study adopted a mixed-method approach to data collection. The findings reveal that IVEs may not necessarily be more effective than the “pen-and-paper” and video viewing approaches to teaching SECs but they can better facilitate perspective taking and empathy for a greater number of students.

Keywords:

Immersive virtual environment, virtual reality, social emotional learning.