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Summary
Juana Wu et al. (2019) wrote the article, “Integrating spherical video-based virtual reality
into elementary school students’ scientific inquiry instruction: effects on their problem-solving
performance”. The authors wrote about how Virtual Reality (VR) technology could be used to
help students learn how to problem solve, especially in science. There has been a growing need
of teaching students how to problem solve. VR is capable of doing this because it will keep
students engaged, interested, interacting, and motivated. By keeping the students engaged,
interested, and motivated, it will help students learn how to problem solve because they will
want to learn.
The authors conducted research on this by integrating it into elementary science classes.
The students used the VR when they were doing science activities. The authors wanted to see
how the students would use problem-solving during the activities on the VR. The results at the
end of the study showed that the students benefitted from using this new VR system. It increased
their problem-solving skills and a lot of the students’ attitudes about learning changed in a
positive way. The students who had a negative learning attitude before the study ended up having
a positive learning attitude after the study was concluded. Meanwhile, the students who had a
positive learning attitude before the study ended up having a negative learning attitude after the
study was concluded. The authors talked about how this could be due to how interactive the new
VR system is compared to their usual science activities.
Critique
The authors’ approach to integrating this new VR system into science classrooms was a
good test run. The 29 students who were in the experimental group where they got to use the new
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VR system were able to do the test run of this new system to show the authors how well they
would do with it and if it would be worth it to fully implement into all schools. The authors did a
good job of listing out the experimental process throughout the integration. Also, they provided
pictures throughout their research paper to get a better understanding of how this was integrated
into their science class. The pictures showed that the students were focused and engaged
throughout the whole activity.
One of the readings that we read this week talked about how implementing change can be
successful in the classroom. Sheninger (2019) states, “If sustainable change is the goal, it is
important to clarify the what, why, and how and to follow with a determination of success” (p.
58). The authors do a great job in providing all three of these when integrating the new VR
system into the science classroom. At the beginning of the article, the authors discuss what the
new VR system is and how it works. Then, they go on to explain why they think integrating this
would be beneficial for the students. Finally, they discuss how they integrated this system into
the science classroom by giving us each step of the experimental process.
Changes
After reading the article and getting a clear understanding of the new VR system that the
authors are trying to integrate into schools, I believe that there are minimal changes that need to
be made to make the implementation more successful. First, it is important that the authors
conduct more research on this new VR system in more elementary science classrooms. Before
fully implementing it into all schools, it is important that the authors get even more feedback on
whether it benefits students or not. Second, they need to test it out with other subjects as well.
Students use a lot of problem-solving skills in science, but they also use the skill in other
subjects. Because of this, it will be important to integrate it into other subjects as well. It is
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important to see how students react to the VR system with other subjects because it will give the
authors a better understanding on if this new system will benefit students in all aspects of the
classroom.
Lastly, this should be implemented into classrooms at a slow pace as it could be
overwhelming if all elementary students are using the VR system. It should be implemented with
the older elementary students at first and one subject at a time. For example, fifth graders would
be the first students at the school to use it and they would only use it for certain science
activities. This would give the students and teachers time to fully understand the new system and
slowly build their way up to fully implementing it to the entire school. Sheninger (2019) says,
“Change is a process, not an event” (p. 64). Change takes time, but if implemented properly, it
can be very beneficial.
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References
Sheninger, E. (2019). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. (2nd ed.)
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. ISBN: 9781544350820.
Wu, J., Guo, R., Wang, Z., & Zeng, R. (2019). Integrating spherical video-based Virtual Reality
into elementary school students’ scientific inquiry instruction: Effects on their problem-
solving performance. Interactive Learning Environments, 29(3), 496–509.
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2019.1587469.
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