Investigation of the effect of augmented reality supported mobile application on spatial visualization and mind rotation skills of secondary school students

Spatial skill is a different type of skill than numerical and verbal skill, and everyone can have different levels of spatial skill. Spatial skill, which is very important in daily life, workplace, academic achievements, science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) education, can be increased with various exercises and practices. The aim of this study is to develop an augmented reality supported mobile application to increase spatial skill and to examine the effect of this mobile application on seventh grade students' spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. The mobile application was used to teach the objectives in the sub-learning area of "Views of objects from different directions" in the seventh grade curriculum. The study also compared the effects of the use of the mobile application with the traditional teaching method and the teaching methods using concrete materials on spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. The study group of the research consisted of 6 pre-service teachers studying at Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Department of Elementary Mathematics Education during the development of the mobile application and 74 students studying in two different public schools in the central district of Bolu province in the 2023-2024 academic year during the examination of the effects of the mobile application. In the first school, mobile application and traditional teaching method were compared, and in the second school, mobile application and teaching method using concrete materials were compared. In both schools, the group in which the mobile application was used was designated as the experimental group and the groups in which the other two teaching methods were used were designated as the control group. In the research, design and development research Type 1 design was used in the process of developing the mobile application and nested experimental design was used in the process of examining the effects of the mobile application. Digital literacy test, spatial visualization test and mental rotation test were used as quantitative data collection tools. For qualitative data, semi-structured interview forms developed by the researcher (for pre-service teachers and students) and a classroom observation form were used. The digital literacy test was used to identify pre-service teachers during the development of the mobile application. Spatial visualization and mental rotation tests were used as pre-test and post-test. While analyzing the data, t-test, wilcoxon signed-rank test, mann-whitney u test and anova analysis were performed. As a result of the analysis, no difference was found between the pre-test scores of the experimental and control groups in both schools. This shows that the students initially had similar levels of spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. As a result of the analysis conducted in the first school, it was found that the AR-supported mobile application had a large effect level to improve spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. In the first school, the traditional teaching method also had a positive effect on spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. When the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups in the first school were compared, it was seen that the spatial visualization scores were higher in the experimental group, but there was no statistical difference, while there was a moderate statistical difference in favor of the experimental group in the mental rotation test. In this direction, it is concluded that the AR-supported mobile application developed in this direction is a more effective teaching method compared to the traditional teaching method for developing mental rotation skills. Similarly, in the second school, it was found that the use of AR-supported mobile application and concrete materials had a positive effect on spatial visualization and mental rotation skills. When the experimental and control groups in the second school were compared, it was found that there were higher scores between the spatial visualization and mental rotation skills in favor of the experimental group, but the score differences were not statistically significant. From the data observed in the classroom observation form, it was seen that the AR-supported mobile application increased students' motivation and interest and provided opportunities for fun and cooperative learning. As a result of the interviews with the students, it was concluded that the AR-supported mobile application facilitated learning and understanding, that it was desired to be used more frequently in the lessons, that it would be effective to use it in other lessons, and that such applications could change students' perspectives on school. These results provide evidence that AR applications are a valuable teaching method not only in terms of spatial skill but also in educational processes and should be encouraged.