THE EFFECTS OF ART EDUCATION TO VISUAL LITERACY SKILLS

The aim of this research is to determine the effects of arts education on visual literacy skills. The working group of research was consisted in 44 first grade students of Art Education Department according to general screening model. Students were divided into two groups with and without art education background. The art education background means was student's graduated high school where teaching art in there. First group presumed as art educated background group that students of the group graduated from Fine Art High School, second group's students graduated from the ordinary high schools. The Visual Literacy Scale was used as data collection tool. Data statistically analyzed by SPSS computer program. The results show that total visual literacy skills averages of students in all dimensions were high grade. The visual literacy skills scores of art educated background group were higher than the other group's scores. According to our results, Art Education positively effects to student's visual literacy skills.