THE IMPACT OF IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY ON SHAPING STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARDS NATURAL AND CULTURAL HERITAGE

In addition to its educational objectives, geography as a school subject also plays an important pedagogical role. One of pedagogical objectives of geography is to raise students’ awareness of the need to preserve our natural and cultural heritage. This task is becoming increasingly important as the time students spend in the natural environment is replaced by activities in digital environments. Researchers in the fields of didactics and methodology are constantly looking for innovative approaches to improve the teaching process and achieve better learning outcomes by increasing student engagement. The generation of „digital natives“ currently in classrooms has triggered a growing number of studies on the use of ICT tools and VR technologies in the classroom. The aim of this study is to find out whether the use of immersive virtual reality in geography lessons influences students’ attitudes towards natural and cultural heritage. Two groups of students participated in the study: an experimental group that used VR headsets to explore a geography lesson about Serbia’s natural and cultural heritage, and a control group that completed the same lesson without VR technology. After the lesson, the students’ attitudes towards cultural heritage and their motivation to learn geography were measured using questionnaires. The results, which were analyzed using SPSS 26.0, show that the experimental group developed a significantly more positive attitude towards the preservation of cultural heritage and showed a higher motivation to learn geography compared to the control group. These statistically significant differences underline the potential of immersive virtual reality in geography education.