This study examines how desktop-based projected virtual reality (VR), used with and without structured reflective scaffolds, relates to Grade 8 students’ critical thinking in Islamic Studies. The study focuses on a lesson on the Cave of Hira, a site of major religious and historical significance in Islamic tradition. In many classrooms, such topics are typically taught through textbook-based descriptions, which provide limited opportunities for students to engage with the spatial and contextual dimensions of historical settings. This study explores whether introducing visual representations through a projected desktop-based VR environment, with or without reflective prompts, is associated with differences in students’ critical-thinking performance. The study was conducted in a British-curriculum secondary school in Karachi, Pakistan, using a quasi-experimental design with three instructional conditions: textbook-only instruction, a desktop-based projected VR lesson, and a desktop-based projected VR lesson combined with Visible Thinking Routines (VTRs). Students explored a 360-degree virtual tour of the Cave of Hira projected in the classroom. In the VR + VTR condition, routines such as See–Think–Wonder and I Used to Think… Now I Think were used to prompt observation and reflection. Students’ critical thinking was measured using a 10-item scenario-based quiz designed to assess interpretation, reasoning, and evaluation in relation to the lesson content. The descriptive results suggest differences across the instructional conditions. The VR-only group achieved the highest critical-thinking scores, followed by the VR + VTR group and the textbook-only group. While the addition of VTRs did not lead to higher measured scores compared to VR alone, this study does not examine how such routines may influence students’ reflective processes. Given the exploratory design and small sample size, the findings should be interpreted cautiously. Rather than demonstrating instructional superiority, the study suggests that instructional modality and reflective scaffolds may shape how students engage with historically and religiously significant content in classroom learning. The study also contributes context-specific insight into the use of desktop-based VR in Islamic Studies classrooms in Pakistan, an area that remains underrepresented in educational technology research.
Hina Ovais (Thu,) studied this question.