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Investigating Virtual Reality as Resource to Enhance Early Childhood Initial Teacher Education: A Scoping Review
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Investigating Virtual Reality as Resource to Enhance Early Childhood Initial Teacher Education: A Scoping Review

Marina Papic, Kelly Bittner and Victoria Minson
Early childhood education journal, Vol.54, pp.1439-1451
11/07/2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-025-01942-7
Appears in  Recent Faculty of Education Publications
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Abstract

virtual reality early childhood initial teacher education higher education early childhood
Australia is currently experiencing a shortage of qualified early childhood teachers. To address this issue, the government has committed to a decade long National Children’s Education and Care Workforce Strategy which calls for ‘innovative design and delivery approaches’ within early childhood initial teacher education (ITE) courses (Education Services Australia, 2021). Early childhood ITE courses require students to build content knowledge and translate this into professional practice. While virtual reality (VR) is increasingly used as a pedagogical resource in higher education as a way to support the theory/ practice nexus, there is a lack of research that focuses on the potential of VR to support learning within early childhood ITE courses. To address this issue, this scoping review identified fields with a similar focus for practical skills and interpreted these findings for the early childhood ITE sector. The review found that VR can complement more traditional learning approaches for early childhood ITE students. Strategies for teaching and learning were also identified, with a focus on the benefits of VR use in early childhood related ITE. The review also identifies implications for design and implementation of VR, highlighting the value of opportunities synchronous for feedback and reflection. Overall VR was found to be a valuable pedagogical resource that could help to make course content more engaging, interesting and accessible for early childhood ITE students. Of particular value was the ability to practice teaching-related skills in a safe, risk-free virtual space. This scoping review provides a previously unreported foundation for future research in VR use in early childhood ITE.

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