National training of teachers completed!

The VR4Empathy project has reached a pivotal milestone with the successful completion of the national training of teachers, involving 136 teachers across 27 schools from Greece, Portugal and Slovenia!

Following a flexible 25 to 30-hour blended learning methodology, the training combined synchronous, face-to-face workshops with asynchronous and autonomous work. This approach ensured that the high number of participating educators could balance professional development with their demanding school schedules while gaining mastery over 3DoF VR technology!

The sessions focused on several critical operational and pedagogical pillars:

Participatory co-design: Teachers took an active role in reviewing and adapting co-designed VR scripts, ensuring the content aligns with national curricula and the specific socio-cultural needs of their students.
Applying the Quality Assurance Framework (QAF): Teachers were trained to use the project’s QAF to ensure that every VR session is pedagogically sound, ethically accountable, and fact-based.
From reaction to rationality: A core focus was teaching educators how to move students beyond “emotional contagion” (immediate feeling) to rational “perspective-taking” and action-oriented empathy.
Classroom logistics & workflow: Participants mastered the “4–5 headset rotation” workflow, a practical strategy designed to integrate 4-to-8-minute immersive experiences into standard lesson timetables without disrupting the curriculum.

Bringing headsets to the field

In the upcoming months, the VR-based resources will be tested in the field to analyse the impact of the methodology and resources in enhancing students’ empathy. As part of the implementation, the consortium expects to:

Implement 145 lessons in the three countries, adjusting and tailoring the 8 lesson plans provided in the handbook of lessons (here)
Use the 10 VR-based videos identified in the handbook as resources to support the lessons, testing its impact in leveraging students’ empathy (see the videos here)
Implement the VR4Empathy approach and resources in 25 schools from Greece, Portugal and Slovenia with the support of 154 teachers of upper-secondary level of education
Measure the impact from both teachers and students, through pre- and post-surveys and promotion of round tables
Start the discussion on sustainability and exploitation by launching national and international thematic and networking workshops to involve the organisations from the XREducation network (follow the enlargement of the network here)