High School Students' Engagement in Biology in the Context of XR Technology

With Extended Reality (XR), it is possible to enhance our real-world experiences through a fusion of immersive and interactive technologies. In the present research, the researchers intended to study high school students' engagement in Biology learning in the context of XR. Fourteen tenth-grade students who learned the biological topics of the cell and the heart participated in the research. During the selection process, consideration was given to the students' readiness to participate in the program. The researchers collected data via interviews and observations. The interview questions were related to the four types of engagement: The behavioral, the cognitive, the emotional, and the social. The observations were used to triangulate the interview-based data. To analyze the data, the researchers used deductive and inductive content analysis. The research results indicated the XR context encouraged the participants to engage in four types of engagement: cognitive engagement (learning perception, learning assessment, learning regulation, learning application), emotional engagement (learning sufficiency, affection for learning, and learning motivation), social engagement (interaction and communication), and behavioral engagement (achievement and good classroom behavior). The observations results supported the results from the interviews.