The impact of in-class museum education activities in visual arts on students' attitudes towards augmented reality technology

This study aimed to investigate whether in-class museum activities conducted within the scope of the visual arts course have an effect on the attitudes of 6th-grade secondary school students. Based on quantitative data, the research was designed according to a pre-test–post-test control group experimental model. The research group consisted of a total of 53 students enrolled in the 6th grade at X Secondary School in Burdur, Türkiye. Among these participants, 25 students were assigned to the experimental group and 28 to the control group. As a data collection tool, the Attitude Scale towards Augmented Reality Applications in Secondary Schools developed by Küçük, Yılmaz, Baydaş, and Göktaş (2014) was administered. To ensure the validity of the activities and processes developed regarding augmented reality applications, expert opinions were obtained from specialists in the field who have experience with quantitative research methods. The expert feedback served as a measure to evaluate the study from multiple perspectives and to ensure the scientific validity of the implementation. Data were collected during the 2025–2026 academic year and analyzed using a statistical software package. Descriptive statistical methods (frequency, percentage, mean, median, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis) were initially used to examine the data obtained from the participants. The normality of the dataset was evaluated using the Shapiro–Wilk test along with the skewness and kurtosis coefficients. The analyses revealed that the data were normally distributed; therefore, parametric tests were employed in the study. To examine the relationships between variables, Pearson's correlation analysis was conducted. The differences between the pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental and control groups were analyzed using the paired samples t-test. To determine whether participants' scores differed according to their socio-demographic characteristics and group membership (experimental/control), the independent samples t-test was used for comparisons between two groups, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for comparisons among more than two groups. In cases where significant differences were identified through ANOVA, post-hoc tests were performed to determine the source of the difference. In addition, covariance analysis (ANCOVA) was applied to determine whether a significant difference existed between the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups when pre-test scores were controlled as a covariate. In line with the findings obtained, the study evaluated the effect of augmented reality technology on students' attitudes within museum-based activities conducted in the visual arts course, and results were discussed along with recommendations for educational practice.