Abstract: Many teacher preparation programs include field experiences for preservice science teachers. The purpose of these experiences is to expose those wishing to teach to the complexity and unpredictability of the classrooms in which they will be expected to practice. The application of virtual reality (VR) has received considerable research and popular attention. Since the early millennium there has been increasing attention placed on modes of instruction that can supply greater realism and immersion. More recent improvement in VR digital content has allowed the creation of virtual environments that are nearly indistinguishable from reality. During construction of understanding in preservice science teacher education, the focus of VR is on the learner’s control of the learning processes and VR must be designed in such a way as to complement real-life experience and make use of authentic tasks. The purpose of this study is to investigate, compare, and characterize interactive VR based preservice science teacher clinical teaching environments with those of real-life teaching environments. The use of VR, in terms of the realism of the environment for the preservice science teachers allows them to learn from modeled real-life situations for transfer of theory into practice. This transfer of theory into practice can provide preservice science teachers with a means to engage with classroom interaction in a soft-failure environment.