Determining of the effect of mobile augmented reality-assisted instruction on 6th grade student' academic achievement and mental models

Today, students are known by many names such as 21st century students, generation z, V (virtual) generation, Screenage, Internet generation and digital native. Digital natives refer to the generation born into today's technology or technology culture. In this respect, they have different behaviours and living habits compared to previous generations. It has been determined that mobile devices are used by approximately 93% of the country's population, with approximately 3 million new users in the last year in our country. Furthermore, it is predicted that the use of mobile devices in society will become more widespread with each day. As new features are added to mobile devices (smartphones), they become more widespread in many areas over time. One of these areas is science education. On the other hand, science as a school subject contains many concepts that are considered to be abstract by students. Thus, teaching methods and techniques that make science concepts more concrete for students are preferred. Multimedia materials are seen among the techniques that facilitate learning, as they support visual and auditory learning, especially in the teaching of concepts of science subjects that are considered to be difficult and abstract. Augmented reality (AR) applications can also be shown among these techniques. The concept of AR is not a technology only related to the computer environment. In the literature, applications made with mobile devices such as tablets and phones are generally called mobile augmented reality (MAG). In the current study, the concept of AR was preferred while giving theoretical information about the related technology. However, the concept of MAG was preferred when experimental teaching was carried out with the help of mobile smart devices. AR technology was initially used to do practice in the defence industry and to assemble machine parts in the industry. Over time, it has started to disseminate across many fields such as architecture, travel, advertising, tourism, trade, engineering and sports. Today, it has also started to be used in education because it establishes integrity between real and virtual environments, embodies abstract concepts and activates many senses at the same time. The main purpose of the current study is to determine the effect of science teaching supported by mobile augmented reality (MAG) applications within the scope of the 'Solar System' unit on the academic achievement and mental models of 6th grade students. The study was carried out by using the quasi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group, which is one of the quantitative research methods. In this process, mobile augmented reality supported 5E teaching model was administered to the experimental group and only 5E teaching model was administered to the control group. As the data collection tool, the academic achievement test and the mental model test were administered as pre-test and post-test for both experimental and control groups. The student opinion form on the other hand was administered as a pre-test and post-test only for the experimental group students. According to the findings obtained in the current study, both the MAG supported 5E teaching model and the 5E teaching model contributed significantly to the academic achievement of the students. However, it was determined that there is a difference between the academic achievement post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in favour of the experimental group. On the other hand, it was determined that the mental models of both the experimental group and the control group students regarding the concepts of Sun, planet, meteor, asteroid, meteorite and Solar system are generally at the synthesis level. In addition, significant decreases were observed in the non-scientific written and visual explanations and drawings of the students in both the experimental and control groups. On the other hand, it was seen that more scientifically correct expressions and drawings were produced in the post-test in both groups. Finally, in the post-test, the mental models of the experimental group students were found to be more scientific than those of the control group students.