New Perspectives in Science Education

In this study, it was investigated the effect of the visual reading approach carried out in physics course on university students’ academic achievements, understanding and their attitudes towards physics course. The study was based on pretest-post test experimental design with control group. The lessons were taught to experimental group by using the visual reading method and to control group by using traditional method.

The study was carried out 2012-2013 semester. The subjects of the present study consisted of 80 undergraduate students (13 boys and 67 girls) from two mathematic classes taught by the same teacher at university in Turkey. Students’ ages are ranged from 19 to 20 years.

Test was developed by the researchers. The test contained 10 multiple-choice questions was applied the groups before and after treatments. Each question had one correct answer and four distracters. The purpose of the test was to measure students’ understanding of projectile motion concepts, all items in the test were conceptual, and no quantitative calculations were needed to answer questions. The reliability (alpha) of the test was found to be 0.79, which is considerably high for a misconception test.

The purpose of attitudes scale, which was developed by the researchers, was to measure students’ attitudes toward physics as a school subject. This instrument contains 34 items in a five-point Likert-type scale (fully agree, agree, undecided, partially disagree, and fully disagree). The reliability was found as 0.88. Three sample items of the scale are given as follows.

The data were analyzed by using SPSS statistical program. The findings indicated that the using of visual reading approach affected more positively the students’ academic achievements in physics course, understanding and their attitudes towards physics course than traditional method.