Designing for Relationality in Virtual Reality: Context-Specific Learning as a Primer for Content Relevancy

Science achievement gaps exhibit racial disparities starting in primary grades and have been shown to persist through middle and high school. In turn, increasing positive attitudes toward science have been shown as one factor that affects academic achievement and motivation among K-12 students. Exploring novel ways that technology can influence diverse students’ attitudes toward science, and the design elements pertinent therein, is thus one prominent goal toward achieving science education for all. Leveraging the immersive nature of Virtual Reality 360 videos, we present a design-based research iteration testing how a novel technology-enhanced learning experience influenced close to 400 urban elementary students’ attitudes toward science. Using a two-way MANCOVA analysis, the data support that our design iteration emphasizing context-specific learning can prime students that do not see science as relevant to them to change these attitudes in significantly positive ways. Implications are discussed around relationality, technology use in urban schools, and local contexts as learning resources.