VR Technologies in Teaching Psychology in Pedagogical Classes

When organizing the activities of schoolchildren in specialized pedagogical classes, it is necessary to equip them with the most advanced methods, organizing professional tests and acquiring specific experience in future activities through immersion in a new reality - digital. The article discusses options for using VR-technologies in the educational process of a school. The advantages and prospects of their use in the process of teaching psychology to high school students in specialized pedagogical classes are analyzed. Purpose of the study: to study the possibilities of using VR-technologies in teaching psychology to students in pedagogical classes. The approach is convergent, allowing on an interdisciplinary basis to integrate traditional and digital technologies that serve as tools for the development of critical thinking, research competencies, group work skills, allowing to expand the boundaries of clip thinking of modern schoolchildren, move from fragmentary to holistic knowledge, offer children new formats of activity, stimulate educational motivation of students. Research methods: analysis, synthesis, generalization, questioning. Sample: psychology teachers of 38 classes of psychological and pedagogical orientation in the city of Tula and the Tula region. Main results: possible areas for the use of VR-technologies in teaching psychology are highlighted, namely, visualization of abstract psychological concepts, virtual excursions to psychological laboratories, acquaintance with specific psychologists of the past and present, virtual participation in psychological experiments, virtual games for training professionally significant skills; immersion in school reality; try yourself as a teacher; creating lesson projects; use of immersive methods; visiting specialized virtual exhibitions, bookstores; virtual visit to the university, etc. Using the capabilities of VR-technologies can significantly affect the increase in the efficiency of the process of assimilation and development of motivation of students in pedagogical classes for the specialized discipline - psychology.