Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Virtual Reality in the Irish Primary Classroom: An Integrated STEM Research Project Overview: Michael Mc Namara and Edward Corry
In an increasingly digital society, the rapid development of extended reality (XR) technologies is creating new opportunities for meaningful and engaging STEM learning. Within this context, educators are challenged to adopt creative pedagogical approaches that enable learners not only to use emerging technologies but also to think critically, collaborate effectively, and engage with complex real-world issues. This perspective is reflected in Ireland’s Digital Strategy for Schools to 2027 (Department of Education, 2022) which emphasises equipping students with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions required to become confident global citizens in a digital world, while also encouraging the innovative use of emerging technologies to extend learning beyond the classroom walls.
Virtual reality (VR) has experienced significant growth in recent years due to its potential to support deeper, more inclusive, and pupil-centred learning. Research indicates that VR environments can enhance conceptual understanding by allowing learners to explore complex topics through immersive, imaginative and interactive features (Gavish et al., 2015; Villena-Taranilla et al., 2022). Although VR can increase motivation and attention (Drakopoulos and Sioulas, 2021), its primary educational value lies in its capacity to support inclusive, collaborative, and meaningful knowledge construction (Kavanagh et al., 2017).
This presentation provides an account of a collaborative VR research project involving the Department of STEM Education at Mary Immaculate College (MIC), Limerick, and the Oide Technology in Education team. The project involved nine senior classes in primary schools across Counties Galway and Clare and explored how the design and creation of multi-scene interactive VR environments supported deeper pupil understanding of real-world STEM issues related to ocean conservation. A total of 189 pupils participated in this six-week project, working collaboratively to create interactive VR stories based on online research and the application of coding and digital content-creation skills. The use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) supported pupils in visualising their solutions to ocean conservation challenges. All activities within the project were explicitly aligned with learning outcomes across multiple strands of the new STEM education curriculum (Department of Education and Youth, 2025), as well as the five-phase approach advocated for integrated STEM learning.
This project built on a previous VR research initiative undertaken by MIC and placed a strong emphasis on teacher professional learning and learner-centred design. Teachers participated in two in-person professional learning events at the beginning of the project to develop their confidence and competence in using VR software and to explore strategies for supporting the development of inclusive and interactive immersive VR learning experiences. A shared learning day at the end of the project provided further opportunities for reflection, collaboration, and the sharing of pupils’ work.
The research strand of this joint project, led by MIC, incorporates the use of pre- and post-project pupil questionnaires, pupil focus groups, and semi-structured interviews with teachers. This presentation outlines the design of the project and discusses emerging themes from the analysis of the data, with particular attention to how learner-centred immersive design supported deeper learning, pupil engagement, and a more meaningful understanding of ocean conservation.
