A research on both primary school 1st grade Turkish lesson curriculum and application of curriculum

This research has been done to define what first grade teachers, principals, students' parents and students think about primary school first grade Turkish lesson curriculum used in 2018-2019 academic year; also it has been done for the purpose of teachers' and students' primary reading and writing process in the classroom. In this study sequential searching mixed method is adapted as a research method. During the quantitative research of the study the working group is composed of 192 first grade teachers working at public primary school in Kayseri during 2018-2019 academic year. During the qualitative research stage a working group is set in order to interview, this group includes five first grade teachers , 10 first grade students, four parents and three principals from public schools in Kayseri. For observation another working group consisting of first grade students and their teachers is set. Students are chosen randomly among the students of a public primary school in Kocasinan county of Kayseri province. In the research, data are gathered by using "Turkish Lesson Curriculum Rating Scale" (TLCRS) which is developed for teachers and by using semi-structured interview forms and semi-structured observation forms. In the analysis of the data gathered in the research descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, arithmetic average, standard deviation) are produced, additionally t-test, anova and content analysis are made. The results of the research findings as follows: As a result of analysis it is found that teachers express positive opinion about curriculum and about the TLCRS' subscales (Theme, Grammar, Learning Outcome, Primary Reading and Writing, Assessment and Evaluation). It is also found that there are some statistically significant differences among teachers in terms of gender, educational background and professional seniority. However, there is not any significant difference in terms of in-service training activities. According to the results of the interview analysis, it is seen that teachers don't have adequate information about curriculum and they have difficulty in practicing it. Students state that they like Turkish lesson, they do not have difficulty in learning and they do not get bored during the lesson. Parents state that they get information about the changes in Turkish lesson curriculum from their social environment and they consider that the aim of Turkish lesson is to learn reading and writing. Principals think that teachers are not provided with enough in-service training activities about teaching program. According to observation results, teachers have adequate qualification and they do not have much difficulty in primary reading and writing stage. It is found that students have difficulty in writing letters and making sentences during the reading and writing stage. However, they enjoy independent reading activities but they have difficulty in reading comprehension. Based on these results, recommendations are made to researchers for future researches. Key Words: Turkish lesson curriculum, primary reading and writing, curriculum evaluation