Augmented Reality and Teachers’ Professional Development
In our latest reflection on research, the Institute of Education’s Stavros Nikou explains the promise of Augmented Reality in the classroom.
Augmented reality (AR), a technology that superimposes virtual objects over the physical world blending digital with physical environments, promises to offer new opportunities in education. The latest developments in mobile technologies have made mobile-based AR relatively inexpensive and accessible. In mobile-based AR, the physical world is linked with the virtual content through various triggers for classroom use.
Research provides evidence that AR can offer immersive, authentic, and meaningful learning experiences to students. AR can enable visualization of invisible and abstract concepts, provide interaction opportunities for students, increase student interest, satisfaction, motivation, and engagement, and therefore enhance learning. Moreover, AR has the potential to enhance leaning achievement favouring long-term knowledge retention (Chang et al., 2022; Garzón & Acevedo, 2019).
However, despite the potential of AR and the benefits that have been reported so far, its integration in the classroom practice remains a challenge. A main reason, among other factors (e.g., cost or limited digital infrastructure), is the lack of teachers’ digital competences (Nikou, Perifanou, Economides, 2022).
In a recent study completed by educators worldwide, we found that while teachers appreciate the importance and usefulness of AR in the educational practice, they are still hesitant to use it in the classroom (Perifanou, Nikou & Economies, 2023). Another recent study with preservice teachers (Nikou, 2023) has shown that the perceived educational value of AR is a significant predictor of whether practitioners consider using it. However, the lack of teachers’ digital and AR skills remains a main barrier preventing them to integrate AR in education. As teachers are catalysts to the adoption of new educational technologies, it’s imperative that their professional development equips them with these skills.
What can be done to raise teachers’ awareness of the value of AR in education and the need for professional development? We have developed and validated a framework explaining the AR competences relevant to using AR in teaching. The Teachers’ Augmented Reality Competences (TARC) framework (Nikou, Perifanou, & Economies, 2023) explains that educators should be able to create, use and manage AR resources:
- Creating AR resources comprises designing, developing, and modifying AR digital media and learning experiences.
- Using AR resources comprises the pedagogies needed to teach and assess in AR learning environments providing meaningful AR-based scaffolding and feedback as well as communicating and collaborating in AR-enhanced virtual worlds.
- Managing AR resources comprises searching and finding appropriate AR educational resources for effective classroom use, as well as the capacity to deal and overcome several ethical (e.g., privacy) as well as security and safety (e.g., physical, or mental risks) challenges arising from the use of AR in education.
Teachers can use the framework to evaluate their own AR proficiency, teacher professional development organizations to develop training programs in AR and software companies to develop AR experiences that can empower educators.
Furthermore, based on the TARC framework, we provided evidence that the creation and the management competences significantly predict university lecturers’/professors’ and primary/secondary school teachers’ ability to Use AR in their classes (Nikou, Perifanou, and Economides, 2024).
An ongoing research project within the Institute of Education about the use of AR by primary school teachers to enhance the learning experience of their pupils is anticipated to shed more light in this exciting and promising area of research and practice in technology enhanced learning. Moreover, our PgCert in Digital Education within the Institute of Education offers preservice and in-service teachers the knowledge and skills needed to design and develop educational AR and other emerging educational technologies to further support learning.
References
Chang, H. Y., Binali, T., Liang, J. C., Chiou, G. L., Cheng, K. H., Lee, S. W. Y., & Tsai, C. C. (2022). Ten years of augmented reality in education: A meta-analysis of (quasi-) experimental studies to investigate the impact. Computers & Education, 191, 104641. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu. 2022.104641
Garzón, J., & Acevedo, J. (2019). Meta-analysis of the impact of augmented reality on students’ learning gains. Educational Research Review, 27, 244-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2019.04.001
Nikou, S.A. (2024). Factors influencing student teachers’ intention to use mobile augmented reality in primary science teaching. Education and Information Technologies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-024-12481-w
Nikou, S.A., Perifanou, M., & Economides, A.A. (2024). Educators’ Ability to Use Augmented Reality (AR) for Teaching Based on the TARC Framework: Evidence from an International Study. In: Auer, M.E., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) Smart Mobile Communication & Artificial Intelligence. IMCL 2023. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 936. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-54327-2_7
Nikou, S.A., Perifanou, M. & Economides, A.A. (2023). Development and validation of the teachers’ augmented reality competences (TARC) scale. Journal of Computers in Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s40692-023-00288-6
Nikou, S.A., Perifanou, M., Economides, A.A. (2022). Towards a Teachers’ Augmented Reality Competencies (TARC) Framework. In: Auer, M.E., Tsiatsos, T. (eds) New Realities, Mobile Systems and Applications. IMCL 2021. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, vol 411. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96296-8_19
Perifanou, M., Economides, A.A. & Nikou, S.A. (2023). Teachers’ Views on Integrating Augmented Reality in Education: Needs, Opportunities, Challenges, and Recommendations. Future Internet, 15, 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi15010020
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