The effect of multimedia based critical reading education on critical reading skills of 6th grade students

The present study was conducted to determine the effect of multimedia-based critical reading education on critical reading skills of 6th grade students. The study, which is a mixed model, is a pre-test, post-test and control group study. In the 21st century, when societies are bombarded with information, research is important in terms of examining the factors affecting the reading of information critically. The study was conducted with 6th grade Turkish language students at Mustafa Kemal Middle School in Güngören district of İstanbul province which is a public school under the Ministry of National Education. Among the five 6th grade classes with similar size and academic achievement, Class 6E was determined as the experiment and Class 6K was determined as the control group. 30 students participated in the study in the experimental and control groups. The applications were carried out with eight reading texts and activities selected from the themes "Love," "Reading Culture," and "Emotions" in 6th grade Turkish language textbook. In the experimental group, a multimedia-based educational environment was created with the support of multimedia content such as visuals, audio, videos, graphics, animation, cartoons, pictures, documentaries, music, etc. in Turkish language course and multimedia-based critical reading education was conducted. In the control group, the courses were instructed based on the 2016-2017 academic year Turkish Language Teacher's Guidebook. Data collection instruments included "Reading Comprehension Test," which was applied to determine the experiment and control groups before the study and to determine the reading comprehension levels of the students and a semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher, which was applied to the experiment group before and after the application and to the control group before the application to determine the views of the students on critical reading and multimedia. To collect the quantitative data in the study, "Multimedia-Based Critical Reading Test," developed by the researcher, was applied as pre- and post-tests to students in experiment and control groups. The study data were analyzed using the appropriate analysis package programs to determine the critical reading achievements of the students and their views on critical reading skills and instruction were analyzed. Descriptive statistical methods (count, percentage, mean, standard deviation) were used in data analysis. T test, ANOVA and MANOVA tests were used for the quantitative data analysis. In the analysis of qualitative data, content analysis, t-test and chi-square test were used. The analyses conducted in the present study demonstrated that there was an increase in the critical reading achievements of the students in the experimental group who were instructed with multimedia-based activities, while there was no significant change in the control group. The difference between the mean experiment and control group scores favored the experiment group and was statistically significant based on all findings. It was determined that multimedia-based critical reading education had a significant impact on critical reading skills. The analysis of qualitative data demonstrated that the views of the students in the experiment and control groups on critical reading and multimedia use were similar before the critical reading education; however, the students in the experiment group were satisfied with the multimedia-based critical reading activities. Thus, it was concluded that critical reading education improved students' reading comprehension, interpretation, evaluation, comparison, concretization, knowledge retention and inference skills. According to these results, the researcher's suggestions are as follows: Since multimedia applications contribute to critical reading, they can be added to the Turkish Curriculum and used in Turkish courses and other courses. Acquisition, practice and activities that address critical reading in Turkish curricula and textbooks can be increased. Studies on critical reading practices based on multiple media can be done at secondary and undergraduate levels. Keywords: Turkish language education, multimedia, critical reading, 6th grade students.