Elementary teachers' opinions about their competence regarding school readiness in literacy teaching

The aim of this research is to reveal the competence of classroom teachers about managing the first reading and writing instruction process in relation to the school readiness which is considered as an effective factor in the first reading and writing instruction. This study employed a descriptive research method which is frequently used in qualitative research and interviews were carried out within the study as a data collection method. The target population of this research is primary school classroom teachers working in the province of Antalya. Study group is composed of 20 teachers which are selected on the voluntary basis using convenient sampling from 5 different schools in Aksu district. Research data was collected using semi-structured interview questions to reveal the teachers' competencies which are developed based on the literature on school readiness, the importance of student assessment techniques and the role of student assessment techniques in learning. The research data were analyzed using content analysis. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Transcribed interviews were coded and related themes were obtained on basis of codes. Participants' actual names were not revealed and used codes for each participant. According to the findings, it is appeared that; • Teachers emphasize more physical properties as a condition for learning, reading and writing and while they use the concepts related to the cognitive sphere and pre-school experience, they do not usually relate it with emotional and social development; • Teachers explain the causes of the problems encountered in literacy process with the methods used, neglectful family, and the child's age rather than attributing the causes to teachers' main responsibilities of knowing their students well and organizing appropriate learning activities for them. • Teachers associated school readiness mostly with characteristics such as age, height, weight, adaptation to rules and school and whereas teachers stated that maturity can be determined via natural observation, they perceived activities like holding pen, drawing pictures and painting as a physical preparation. • They mentioned the positive and negative effects of determining school readiness. They perceived setting level groups and individual pace in learning as positive effects whereas disruption of educational process and classroom order which tire teachers were perceived as negative effects. • Teachers lack information about school readiness concept; they do not arrange activities to determine students' school readiness; they carry out planned teaching process according to the curriculum but they do not carry out teaching process in line with individual differences and their readiness. Keywords: Literacy teaching, School readiness, Teacher competencies.