Impact of 360° VR on empathy of pre-service teachers: An experimental study

As a key professional competence of teachers, empathy involves whether teachers can stand in the student’s position to pay attention, understand their behavior, and make reasonable judgment and explanation of it. Researchers have discovered that 360° virtual reality (360° VR), a relatively recent form of media, can be particularly powerful in encouraging individuals to adopt different perspectives and understand the world from others’ viewpoints. But few studies have explored the use of 360° VR in teachers’ empathy fostering and the influence of 360° VR on empathy are underexplored. Hence, this study aims to investigate the potential impact of 360° VR on the cultivation of pre-service teachers’ empathy, particularly in comparison to traditional media forms, and explored the impact of user experiences such as immersion, engagement, and discomfort in 360° VR. We use an experimental design to compare the impact of different media (i.e., 360° VR, 2D video, and text-image) on pre-service teachers’ empathy. Our main findings indicate that: (1) 360° VR group showed significantly higher level of empathy than 2D video and text-image groups; (2) immersion positively correlated with engagement and empathy, while engagement negatively correlated with discomfort. The study suggests the viability of utilizing 360° VR for training pre-service teachers’ empathy, but it requires an integration of effective learning activities and scaffolding design.