The effects of Phonological Awareness Professional Development Program on preschool teachers and children

The aim of the study is to investigate the effects of Phonological Awareness Professional Development Program on teachers' phonological awareness knowledge, practice level of phonological awareness instruction in the classroom and phonological awareness skills of preschool children. The research was planned semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest control group. Criterion sampling method of convenience sampling was used to determine the sample. The study conducted with 34 children in the experimental group and 33 children in the control group, in total 67 children. Also, 2 preschool teacher for experimental and control group in total 4 teacher involved in the study. Phonological Awareness Professional Development Program was applied to the teacher in the experimental group. In addition to six education sessions given to the teachers in the process of program application, feedbacks were given to the teachers with coaching while they are applying phonological awareness activities in class. Teachers were given a total of 5 hours of training and approximately 10 hours of coaching were made. As measurement tools, Teacher Phonological Awareness Knowledge Test and Phonological Awareness Practice Checklist was used to assess preschool teachers. The data obtained from children were collected by The Phonological Awareness Scale of Early Childhood Period (PASECP). Control variables named as expressive language and category naming was assessed with Test of Early Literacy. Data obtained from teachers were evaluated by calculating the performance percentage. Data obtained from children were analyzed by ANCOVA, dependent and independent groups t-test. As a result of the study, it was seen that the teachers' phonological awareness knowledge and the application level of the activities increased. Moreover, there was a significant difference between the experimental and control group children in the PASECP total scores and also in the other sub-dimensions of the scale. As a result, the effectiveness of the Phonological Awareness Professional Development Program was revealed.