Investigation of the knowledge levels of teachers working in special education kindergartens about phonological awareness skill

The study is a quatitative research conducted in the survey model in which it is determined to reveal existing knowledge levels of teachers working in Special Education Kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education (MEB) about phonological awareness skills through a questionnaire prepared in the form of a test. In addition, it was aimed to examine whether the existing phonological awareness skills konowledge levels of the participant teachers differed according to the gender, graduation level, field of graduation, years of employment and previous training on phonological awareness skills. The study group of the research consisted of 103 teachers working in Special Education Kindergartens affiliated to the Ministry of National Education in the Anatolian Side of Istanbul in the spring semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. The data were collected through "Personal Information Form" and "Phonological Awareness Knowledge Level Test" tools. In analyzing the data; Independent Sample T-Test was used among parametric techniques, Mann Whitney U and Kruskal Wallis H tests were used among nonparametric techniques. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the knowledge levels of teachers working in special education kindergartens in phonological awareness skills were at a medium level and not at the desired sufficiency level. These knowledge levels did not differ significantly according to gender, field and level of graduation, years employment and previous education. The findings show that teachers need support especially on the scope and developmental sequence of phonological awareness skills.