Virtual Reality-Based Development of Students' Systems Thinking in Physics Education: A Pedagogical Model and Experimental Study

Systems thinking is increasingly important in physics education because understanding complex physical phenomena requires students to identify system elements, establish relationships among variables, analyze causal mechanisms, construct models, predict changes, and integrate observations into coherent explanations. This study evaluated a virtual reality (VR)-supported pedagogical methodology designed to develop undergraduate students’ systems thinking in physics. A quasi-experimental pre-test/post-test design involved 299 students from three higher education institutions in Uzbekistan, with 150 students in the experimental group and 149 in the control group. The methodology integrated the VRphyzics.uz educational platform with virtual experimentation, interactive modeling, systemic analysis, prediction, and reflective activities. Systems thinking was operationalized through four interconnected components: technological-analytical, constructive-modeling, innovative-transformational, and reflective-integrative. Baseline distributions did not differ significantly between groups, χ²(2) = 0.095, p = .954. Following the intervention, the transformative level in the experimental group increased from 12.0% to 26.7%, the integrative level from 27.3% to 45.3%, and the analytical level decreased from 60.7% to 28.0%. Post-test distributions differed significantly between groups, χ²(2) = 21.20, p < .001. The experimental group also obtained a higher integral score (M = 1.987, SD = 0.742) than the control group (M = 1.604, SD = 0.724), t(297) = 4.51, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 0.52. The findings indicate that VR can support systems-thinking development when embedded in structured analytical, modeling, transformational, and reflective learning activities.