International Journal of
Information and Education Technology

Abstract—Innovative spatial learning has not been presented to stimulate students. Metaverse for Kids (MfK) is an immersive, technology-based learning media innovation developed to help elementary school students hone their spatial skills optimally. The objectives in this study are: (1) to find out the difference in the spatial abilities of elementary school students before and after using MfK; (2) to compare students’ spatial abilities by gender; (3) to compare students’ spatial abilities based on their types. This study uses a quantitative approach with a pretest-posttest design to measure the effectiveness of implementing the MfK on the spatial ability of fifth-grade students in Semarang City. The participants in this study were 102 fifth-grade students from an elementary school. Data were analyzed using the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test to compare pretest and posttest scores, the Mann-Whitney U Test for differences based on gender, and the Friedman Test to compare types of spatial abilities. The results of the Wilcoxon analysis revealed a significant increase in spatial abilities following the use of MfK, with a medium effect size (r = 0.378). The Mann-Whitney test yielded a p-value of 0.242, which is greater than 0.05, indicating no significant difference in spatial abilities between male and female students. This finding was supported by a small effect size (r = 0.116). The Friedman test showed that relational spatial ability was the most developed type, indicated by the highest mean rank value of 3.86. These findings suggest that MfK is effective in enhancing the spatial abilities of elementary school students, particularly in the spatial relational aspect, without exhibiting gender bias. The main finding of this study is that MfK can help elementary school students to better understand the relationships between the geometry objects studied. The conclusions of this study are (1) the practice of using MfK to learn geometry is effective in improving the spatial ability of fifth grade students; (2) in general, there is no difference in spatial ability in the female and male student groups; (3) the type of spatial ability that increases the highest after the use of MfK is spatial relational ability. Suggestions for utilizing the metaverse in elementary school students should focus on incorporating gamification aspects.

Keywords—elementary school students, geometry, metaverse for kids, spatial ability, quality education

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Cite: Trimurtini, Elok F. Sari, Moh. F. Irvan, Farid Ahmadi, Elvi Mailani, Muhammad T. Machmud, Nurhudayah Manjani, Robenhart Tamba, and Tassanee Juntya, "How Does the Metaverse for Kids Enhance the Students’ Spatial Ability in Elementary School?," International Journal of Information and Education Technology, vol. 16, no. 6, pp. 1585-1594, 2026.

Copyright © 2026 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).