Enhancing Pedagogical Knowledge: Teaching Chinese History and Promoting Positive Psychology through Virtual Reality

In order to comply with the Chinese History Curriculum Guide (Secondary 1-3) of the Education Bureau and cultivate students' positive psychology through Chinese historical figures, the Department of Literature and Culture Studies (LCS), Faculty of Humanities (FHM) at The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) has launched a project using virtual reality (VR) technology to design teaching materials for the subject of Chinese History. With its applicability, teaching Chinese History through virtual reality can improve teaching efficiency and motivate the learning of positive psychology among students.

This project aims to enhance the knowledge of virtual reality teaching methods among Chinese History teachers. Apart from those pre-service teachers, the project is also open to other students at our University who are enthusiastic about teaching Chinese History, allowing them to participate in learning and conducting research. This project enables them to apply VR teaching-related theories and skills while teaching Chinese History.

In the 2022/23 academic year, LCS has successfully held five on-campus VR training lectures in collaboration with NetDragon Websoft, using the "VR Mysticraft+" software to design Chinese History teaching resources. The events have attracted around 50 participants for the time being. Participants have had the opportunity to learn simple but practical VR production skills. The aim is to complete six VR projects regarding their teaching materials, adopting Chinese historical figures as the main focus within the implementation stages. Significantly, linking with the captioned Chinese historical characters and their demonstration of the positive psychological elements will have their pilot testing for teaching purposes at frontline cooperative schools in July 2023.

This project aims to allow junior secondary students to immerse themselves in the virtual world and learn Chinese History and positive psychological elements through a hands-on experience. It can nurture professional excellence and ethical responsibility among future educators and contribute to the actualisation of EdUHK's goal of being the pioneer of education.

Training lectures from NetDragon Websoft

Training lectures from NetDragon Websoft

Students learning how to design VR teaching materials

The finished VR products from students

The finished VR products from students

Students immersing in the virtual world