The effects of the theory of visual culture to improve visual literacy of Fine Arts High School students

The Effects Of The Theory Of Visual Culture To Improve Visual Literacy Of Fine Arts High School Students Because of the recent developments in technologhy making the environment of the individual more visual day by day, visual culture becomes dominant language in communication. This culture obliges today's people to learn its dynamics and language who are living under solid siege of it. It seems possible to raise individuals who can read rightly what they see and analyze more than meets the eye by the education of this culture. In this study, it is aimed to reveal the effects of the theory of visual culture to improve visual literacy of fine arts high school's students who have basic art education. For research, pretest-posttest design is used with control group method and in this regard, the universe is generated with simple random sampling. The study was conducted with 20 students including experiment and control group of Şanlıurfa Kazancı Bedih Fine Arts High School 11. grade. In order to collect data in the research, pretest-posttest, observation and application study examination were used. First of all, pretest was used to measure visual literacy qualifications of both group. Then, visual culture theory-based graphic design training was taught to experimental group while classic graphic design training was taught to control group. The students were asked to design a pictogram and with the observation made while doing these studies, it was tried to determine their awareness of visual culture. After the lectures and application studies were completed, the pretest applied at the beginning of the research was applied as posttest again to both group. The data collected by these methods were analyzed with Wilcoxon signed ranks test and Mann-Whitney U test. As a result of the examination of pretest-posttest, observation forms and pictogram designs, it is determined that there is a significant difference in favor of the experimental group. In conclusion, it is observed that visual culture theory-based teaching process has positive contributions to visual literacy of fine arts high school students. As a cosequense, lt can be said that visual culture should be included in art education. Key Words: Visual Culture, Visual Literacy, Art Education, Pictogram