The Impact of Virtual Reality Technology on Developing Critical Thinking Skills in University Students

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the impact of Virtual Reality (VR) technology on the development of critical thinking skills in university students. Critical thinking skills have become increasingly crucial in addressing global challenges and the complexities of the professional world, leading to the consideration of innovative learning methods such as VR. This literature review explores various studies examining the effectiveness of VR in creating interactive, immersive, and collaborative learning environments. VR enables students to directly engage with real-world simulations that support analytical abilities, problem-solving, and decision-making. The results indicate that VR has significant potential to enhance critical thinking skills, particularly in situations that require deep analysis and reflection. However, this study also finds that standardized tools to quantitatively measure the impact of VR on critical thinking skills are still limited, and the implementation of VR in educational institutions requires substantial investment in technological infrastructure. Therefore, this study highlights the need for further research to develop more comprehensive evaluation methods and to explore the long-term effects of VR usage in education.