Examining the visual literacy levels of prospective teachers: Kilis sample

In this study, it was aimed to examine the visual literacy levels of pre-service teachers in terms of some variables and to shed light on the development of visual literacy education. Descriptive survey, which is a quantitative research method, was used as the research model. The population of the research consisted of prospective teachers at Kilis 7 Aralık University, and as a sample, students studying in the 4th grade of Kilis 7 Aralık University Faculty of Education were selected through convenience sampling. In data collection, "Visual Literacy Level Scale" was presented to the participants in the classroom environment. When those who did not complete the questionnaire for various reasons were excluded, a total of 202 (152 female, 50 male) participants answered the questionnaire. The collected data were tabulated with frequency and percentage values and reflected in the study. SPSS 25.0 programme was used in the analysis of the data collected to examine the visual literacy levels of pre-service teachers. Independent sample t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyse the data. According to the results of the research, visual literacy levels of pre-service teachers were high. There was no significant difference in pre-service teachers' visual literacy levels according to gender, mother's education level, father's education level, family economic status variables. It was found that there was a difference in the visual literacy levels of the participants according to the variable of the department studied. It was observed that the visual literacy levels of the participants studying Preschool Teaching were higher than the other participants. It was observed that the visual literacy levels of pre-service teachers who received art education among the participants were higher than the participants who did not receive art education. It was found that there was no significant difference in the visual literacy levels of the participants who took visual literacy courses compared to the participants who did not take visual literacy courses. This result brought the content and teacher quality of visual literacy education to the agenda. From the analysis of the data collected in the study, it was inferred that art education is an important factor for the development of pre-service teachers' visual literacy levels. Suggestions were made to include courses such as visual literacy education and art education in the curricula, to update the course hours and contents of the courses related to this field, and to improve the quality of teachers and education.