Designing Sustainable Augmented Reality Learning in Schools

"While limited research has explored the specific instructional mechanisms that support the effective implementation of AR-supported learning activities, these mechanisms are crucial in shaping learning outcomes. Our project goes beyond system and activity design to focus on implementation details, using practical insights to refine and sustain learning innovations in schools. Importantly, our partner teachers develop the capacity to independently adapt, transfer, and scale these innovative approaches beyond the initial collaboration."

Project Team

Augmented Reality (AR) has been widely explored in educational research for its potential to create immersive and engaging environments. This ongoing project focuses on developing the technical infrastructure and pedagogical insights necessary to support the effective use of AR in classrooms in a sustainable and scalable manner. It addresses key challenges such as how teachers, in collaboration with researchers, can co-design innovative learning environments; how to support them through the design and implementation process; and how to develop effective learning resources that benefit all students, particularly those who are underperforming.

Using a design-based research approach, the research team is working with five primary schools to co-design AR App activities with lesson packages aligned with science and Chinese language curricula. At the current stage, the findings highlight the pivotal role of teachers in the implementation process, identifying key design and instructional mechanisms, as well as feedback strategies, to enhance student motivation and conceptual understanding. These insights offer practical guidance for schools and policymakers seeking scalable and sustainable ways to integrate emerging technologies into teaching and learning.

Project Implications

• The use of AR can improve students' self-efficacy in concept understanding and science communication.
• Teachers’ emotional support plays a pivotal role in fostering students’ self-efficacy, particularly in understanding scientific concepts and engaging in practical tasks.
• Students' attitudes toward AR features significantly mediated the relationship between teacher’s emotional support and students’ self-efficacy in concept understanding.
• To effectively support students’ motivation and academic achievement in AR-based inquiry learning, the following implementation mechanisms are recommended: (1) explicitly introducing AR functions at the start of lessons, rather than letting students discover them during task completion; (2) tailoring feedback on regulation based on students’ readiness to pedagogical approaches; (3) providing process-level feedback beyond task-level feedback; (4) leveraging AR learning data to drive a new cycle of inquiry

Resources

Project website: https://sshrf.space/bears/

Selected Articles:

• Wen, Y. & He, S. J. (2025). Implementation mechanisms for AR-based inquiry learning through the lens of motivational design. Education and Information Technologies.
• Wen, Y., Lai, C., He, S., Cai, Y., Looi, C. K., & Wu, L. (2024). Investigating primary school students’ epistemic beliefs in augmented reality-based inquiry learning. Interactive Learning Environments, 32(9), 5355-5372.

• Wen, Y., Wu, L., He, S., Ng, N. H. E., Teo, B. C., Looi, C. K., & Cai, Y. (2023). Integrating augmented reality into inquiry-based learning approach in primary science classrooms. Educational technology research and development, 71(4), 1631-1651.