This study examined the impact of Traditional, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) instructional approaches on students’ behavioural engagement, historical empathy, and historical thinking skills in history education. A quantitative quasi-experimental pre-test and post-test design was employed to compare the learning outcomes of students exposed to the three instructional approaches. Behavioural engagement was measured using a 7-point Likert scale, historical empathy was assessed on a 0–100 scale, and historical thinking skills were measured using a scenario-based test scored out of 100. The findings revealed improvements across all three instructional groups; however, the magnitude of improvement was substantially greater among students who received AR and VR instruction. Behavioural engagement increased by 0.6 points in the Traditional group, 2.1 points in the AR group, and 2.8 points in the VR group. Historical empathy increased by 6, 19, and 28 points, respectively, while historical thinking skills increased by 9, 26, and 35 points. One-way ANOVA results indicated statistically significant differences among the three instructional groups for behavioural engagement (F = 29.44, p < .001), historical empathy (F = 34.12, p < .001), and historical thinking skills (F = 41.87, p < .001). Overall, the results demonstrated a consistent pattern of VR > AR > Traditional across all three outcomes. The findings suggest that immersive and interactive technologies, particularly VR, can enhance students’ participation, historical perspective-taking, empathy, and disciplinary historical thinking. The study highlights the potential of integrating AR and VR with teacher guidance, historical evidence, inquiry-based learning, and reflective activities to create more engaging and meaningful history-learning experiences.
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