Exploring the Effects of Virtual Reality-Based Learning on Motivation and Academic Achievement in Elementary Education

With the integration of immersive technologies into education, teachers and students have gained new opportunities to foster student engagement, boost student motivation, and enhance conceptual understanding. Using a quasi-experimental pretest?posttest design, this study examined the effects of virtual reality?based learning environments on elementary students' academic achievement and motivation in a science education program. Participants were 46 sixth-grade students at a public elementary school in Amman, Jordan, divided into an experimental group and a control group. Students in the control group received traditional science instruction, whereas those in the experimental group participated in a program that introduced them to the solar system through an immersive VR-based learning environment. Scores on the academic achievement test and motivation scale showed that, after the intervention, students in the experimental group attained higher short-term academic achievement and reported greater motivation toward science learning than those in the control group. The responses from students in the experimental group on the post-intervention questionnaire reflected high levels of engagement, enjoyment, and curiosity during the VR sessions. Within the constraints of this small-scale, quasi-experimental design, these findings provide preliminary evidence that participation in a VR-supported solar system unit was associated with higher short-term academic achievement and stronger motivation toward science learning in this specific context, rather than establishing the general effectiveness of VR in transforming science learning.