Determination of Visual Literacy of Preservice Teachers

Abstract

The aim of this study is to develop a standard scale which will determine visual literacy levels of preservice teachers according to their perceptions. A survey study research methodology was used and a scale
was conducted with 216 senior preservice teachers selected in Education Faculty in 2010-2011 spring semester. Principal component analysis was used to construct validity of the scale. The scale consisted of 25 items and Cronbach’s Alpha was calculated as .82. The developed scale loaded on five factors and these factors accounted for 54,88% of total variance. Data gathered were presented in tables. The averages of the answers given by preservice teachers in response to the questions relating visual learning proficiencies being high indicate that most of the preservice teachers have high levels of visual learning and literacy. Preservice teachers prefer newspapers most among the written communication means, followed by computer and television. Homework and research purposes were among the first two reasons for using the computer.