Learning Environmentally Sustainable Behaviour through Virtual Reality

Duration: June 2022 – February 2024
Status: Completed
Educational Level: Primary Level
Topic: Digital Tools
Keywords: VR, Ecological Behaviour

Initial Situation

Sustainable development is an increasingly important topic in primary school classrooms. By behaving in environmentally sustainable ways, we can positively influence our environment. However, such behaviour requires the ability to think systemically and to understand complex issues across multiple disciplines—skills that must be learned, ideally beginning in school.
The primary school’s mission is to prepare pupils for their future everyday lives. To do so, teachers often use exercises that simulate real-life situations as closely as possible. A new and particularly context-oriented approach to this is Virtual Reality (VR), a computer-generated environment that allows pupils to experience and interact with simulated situations in a tangible way.

Objectives

How must a VR system be designed so that teachers can use it effectively? What features are necessary to foster the learning of environmentally sustainable behaviour? These are the central questions addressed in this project. Within the BeLEARN framework, we conducted a scientific study in collaboration with the Department of Cognitive Psychology, Perception and Methodology at the University of Bern, and developed a VR system for learning environmentally sustainable behaviour.

Method

Based on interviews with experts in sustainability, didactics, and practicing teachers, we designed and developed a VR experience focusing on environmentally friendly food consumption. This “EcoVR” was programmed so that climatic environmental changes—such as heavy rain—appear or disappear immediately depending on the carbon footprint of the selected food items. The key feature of EcoVR is that it allows learners to experience climatic environmental changes as the direct consequence of their own consumption choices, thereby associating personal actions with environmental outcomes. This association supports the learning of transversal competencies—specifically, the ability to form integrated human–environment knowledge structures from information relevant to environmentally sustainable consumption.

Results

Statistical analyses of evaluations from experienced primary school teachers in controlled experiments suggest that EcoVR has significant potential for educational practice. Moreover, the findings indicate that the VR version may provide greater pedagogical benefit than the PC-based version.

Implemented Translation

The research findings and the developed digital tool will be transferred into educational practice in a follow-up project. Two key questions will guide this next phase:

1. Whether the tool can foster situated learning about environmentally friendly food choices among pre-service teachers; and
2. how these future teachers can didactically integrate the tool effectively into their lessons with secondary school students.

Participating Institutions