Examination of Teachers' Knowledge Levels of the Concept of Early Literacy in Terms of Various Variables

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the level of knowledge of primary school teachers about the concept of early literacy, to determine whether this knowledge level differs according to the teachers' gender, the type of school they graduated from and their professional seniority; to reveal the importance of early literacy skills for 1st grade students of primary school and how to increase teachers' early literacy knowledge levels. This research is a descriptive study of the nature of a survey model. In this study, in which quantitative and qualitative research techniques were used together, mixed method was used in data collection and analysis. The study group of the research consists of 52 primary school teachers who teach the 1st grade. While schools were determined through the disproportionate stratified sampling, teachers were determined through simple random sampling. The analysis of the qualitative data was conducted via content analysis while the quantitative data were analyzed via independent group t-test and ANOVA in this study for which data collection was provided via a semi-structured interview form developed by the researchers. Research findings reveal that primary school teachers have low knowledge levels regarding early literacy and their knowledge levels do not vary depending on gender, the type of school they graduated from and professional seniority. In classroom teaching departments, courses with well-prepared content on early literacy should be put in place, effective in-service training activities should be organized on the subject and classroom teachers should be exchanged frequently with their preschool teachers.