Exploring Virtual Reality's Impact on Math Anxiety: Transforming the Learning Experience

Mathematics learning anxiety negatively impacts students' motivation, comprehension, and academic performance. To address this issue, virtual reality (VR) technology has emerged as an innovative solution that offers a more interactive and immersive learning experience. This study aims to identify how VR integration can help reduce mathematics anxiety by providing a supportive learning environment, as well as to examine the benefits and challenges of using VR as an intervention for mathematics anxiety in students. This qualitative study, with a phenomenological design, involves three elementary school students studying geometry in the 2024 academic year, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected through observations and in-depth interviews. The results indicate that VR effectively reduces anxiety and enhances students' confidence in mathematics by facilitating concrete visualization of abstract concepts, lowering cognitive load, and encouraging intrinsic motivation. Positive experiences in VR-based environments support the development of students' self-efficacy, which contributes to increased engagement in learning. However, VR implementation faces challenges related to adaptation by students and teachers, infrastructure limitations, and potential increases in cognitive load if not balanced with the reinforcement of foundational concepts. VR is recommended as a supplementary learning tool to achieve optimal concept understanding and practical learning.