Evaluation of primary school students' attitudes towards reading and writing in the context of home literacy environment: A mixed method research

In this study, it was aimed to examine the reading and writing attitudes of primary school students according to the characteristics of the home literacy environment. The research was carried out in accordance with the sequential explanatory design, one of the mixed method designs. The research group consists of 588 students studying at one primary school in Osmangazi, Bursa. The students' reading and writing attitude scores were collected with scales, the home literacy environment and information were collected with a semi-structured interview form. The quantitative data of the study were non-parametric tests such as Mann Whitney U Test, Kruskal Wallis H Test, Spearman Correlation Test; qualitative data were analyzed by descriptive analysis method. As the result of the research, no significant difference was determined in the reading and writing attitude scores of the students according to the grade level, mother and father profession. A significant difference was determined in favor of female students in the students' reading and writing attitude scores. In addition, a significant difference was determined in favor of the students in the reading attitude scores of the students who have more books and whose parents have higher education. A positive, moderate and significant relationship was found between the students' reading and writing attitude scores. The students stated that they found attractive to read children's magazines, go to a bookstore, parents communicating with them about school, read books and play literacy-based games at home in the home literacy environment. It is suggested that children's libraries suitable for their development areas should be dissemination for children to benefit and parents should be trained about the contribution of home literacy environment to children's reading and writing attitudes.