Investigating the influencing factors of teaching anxiety in Virtual Reality environments

This study examines the impact of various factors on teachers' anxiety toward teaching in Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Specifically, the research proposes a hypothetical model and investigates the influence of technical proficiency, self-efficacy, and school support on VR teaching anxiety. A total of 329 teachers with prior experience in VR teaching were surveyed in pilot schools to collect data for testing the proposed hypothetical model. The results indicated that school support, self-efficacy, and technical proficiency all had significant negative effects on teachers' VR teaching anxiety. Additionally, school support and self-efficacy had significant positive effects on teachers' technical proficiency. Based on these findings, we provided recommendations to enhance teachers' confidence in using VR-based environments, alleviate VR teaching anxiety, and ultimately enhance the quality of course teaching.