The results are relevant to teachers who face challenges when students struggle to understand concepts presented primarily through verbal explanations. By incorporating appropriate images into lessons, teachers can provide concrete visual representations that help students develop a clearer understanding of the objects, processes, and phenomena they are studying.
Making IPAS Lessons More Engaging
IPAS is an elementary school subject that combines learning about natural phenomena and social life. It encourages students to explore their surroundings, understand cause-and-effect relationships, and develop critical and scientific thinking skills.
However, IPAS lessons can become challenging when instruction relies heavily on lectures. Students may listen to explanations without fully understanding the objects or processes being described. As a result, some learners may lose interest, participate less actively, and struggle to achieve the expected learning outcomes.
The researchers identified similar challenges during preliminary observations at SD Negeri 046413 Barung Kersap. According to their report, some students showed limited interest in learning, participated less actively in classroom activities, and achieved scores below the school's established minimum competency criteria.
Picture-based learning media offers one possible way to address these challenges. The media can include photographs, illustrations, diagrams, and other visual materials directly related to lesson content. Teachers can use images to clarify explanations, connect classroom concepts with everyday experiences, and encourage students to observe and discuss the information presented.
In IPAS lessons, for example, pictures can help students identify plant structures, understand food chains, observe environmental changes, or compare different landforms. Such visual representations can make concepts easier to imagine and provide a foundation for further exploration.
A Study Involving 25 Fifth-Grade Students
Royana Br Sihombing and her colleagues conducted their research at SD Negeri 046413 Barung Kersap in Munte District, Karo Regency, in October 2025. The study included all 25 fifth-grade students at the school: 10 boys and 15 girls.
The researchers used a quantitative approach with a one-group pretest-posttest design. Students first completed an initial test, known as a pretest, to measure their knowledge before learning with picture-based media.
They then participated in IPAS lessons using pictures as instructional materials. After the learning intervention, students completed a posttest to measure their performance. The researchers compared the two sets of scores to determine whether learning outcomes had changed.
The data were analyzed using statistical tests to assess differences between the pretest and posttest results. The researchers also calculated normalized gain, or N-Gain, to classify improvements in learning outcomes as low, moderate, or high.
This approach provided evidence of changes in students’ performance following the intervention. However, because the study involved only one group and did not include a control group, it cannot establish that picture-based media alone caused all the observed improvement. Other factors, including students’ learning experiences and growing familiarity with the material, may also have contributed.
Average Scores Increased by 19.4 Points
The main findings showed an improvement in students’ IPAS learning outcomes after picture-based instruction was introduced. The comparison between the initial and final tests revealed the following results:
- Before picture-based instruction: The average score was 63.2, with a highest score of 75 and a lowest score of 45.
- After picture-based instruction: The average score increased to 82.6, with a highest score of 100 and a lowest score of 60.
- Average improvement: Students’ mean score increased by 19.4 points.
These results indicate that students achieved higher average scores after participating in lessons supported by pictures. The highest score rose from 75 to 100, while the lowest score increased from 45 to 60.
The N-Gain analysis provided additional information about individual improvements. Of the 25 students, eight students, or 32%, achieved a high level of improvement. Eleven students, or 44%, fell into the moderate category, while six students, or 24%, were classified in the low category.
Overall, 19 of the 25 students, equivalent to 76%, achieved moderate-to-high improvement. Although this pattern indicates positive progress for most participants, the six students in the low-improvement category show that picture-based instruction may not benefit every learner to the same extent.
The paired-samples t-test produced a t-value of 7.032 with 24 degrees of freedom. The reported significance value was 0.000, which in statistical reporting means that the p-value was below 0.001 rather than literally zero. This result indicates a statistically significant difference between students’ scores before and after the intervention.
How Pictures Can Support Learning
Pictures provide visual representations that can help students process new information. When teachers combine verbal explanations with relevant images, students can connect what they hear with information they can observe.
This connection is particularly useful in IPAS because many objects and processes cannot be brought directly into the classroom. Photographs of local environments, illustrations of natural processes, and simple diagrams can help students develop an initial understanding before exploring more complex concepts.
Pictures can also serve as starting points for more active learning. Teachers can ask students to identify objects, compare two images, explain differences, predict the causes of an event, or draw conclusions from their observations. In this way, pictures become more than decorative additions to a presentation; they become tools for encouraging reasoning and discussion.
The findings reported by Sihombing, Togatorop, and Saragih of Universitas Quality Berastagi show that picture-based instruction was followed by a statistically significant increase in test scores among the students they studied. Their results provide a useful reference for teachers considering alternative instructional strategies, especially when students need visual support to understand IPAS concepts.
Implications for Teachers and Elementary Schools
Picture-based learning media offers practical advantages because teachers can use materials that are relatively easy to obtain, including textbook illustrations, photographs of the local environment, teacher-created images, and digital visual resources. Effective implementation does not necessarily require expensive technology. The most important considerations are the accuracy of the images, their relevance to the lesson, and their suitability for students’ learning needs.
Teachers should select pictures that are clear, accurate, easy to interpret, and directly connected to the learning objectives. Images that are overly complicated or unrelated to the main topic may distract students rather than support understanding.
Teachers can also combine pictures with guiding questions, group discussions, demonstrations, and exercises. After observing an image, students might explain what they see, connect it to everyday experiences, or justify their answers. These activities can help students move beyond memorizing information toward developing a deeper understanding of the material.
For schools, the findings offer a reason to support teachers in accessing appropriate visual teaching resources and varying their instructional methods. Further research involving larger samples, multiple schools, and comparison groups would help determine whether similar benefits can be consistently observed in different educational settings.
Overall, the study at SD Negeri 046413 Barung Kersap suggests that picture-based media is a promising option for supporting IPAS learning in elementary schools. The 19.4-point increase in average test scores is an important finding, while the variation in individual improvements highlights the need to select instructional media carefully and combine it with learning activities that encourage student participation.
Author Profiles
Royana Br Sihombing is the lead author of the article, co-authored with Jainal Togatorop and Rayani Saragih. All three authors are affiliated with Universitas Quality Berastagi, Indonesia. Their article examines the use of visual instructional media and its relationship with IPAS learning outcomes among elementary school students. Their individual academic degrees and specific areas of expertise were not provided in the available article information.
Research Source
Sihombing, Royana Br, Jainal Togatorop, and Rayani Saragih. (2026). “The Effect of Image Media on Students' Learning Outcomes in the IPAS Subject in Class V at SD Negeri 046413 Barung Kersap in the 2025/2026 Academic Year.” Asian Journal of Applied Education (AJAE).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.55927/ajae.v5i4.16987
Journal website: https://journal.formosapublisher.org/index.php/ajae
The article is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits sharing and adaptation under the license terms, provided appropriate attribution is given.
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