Investigating problems initial reading-writing instruction and their solutions through mixed methods

The purpose of this research is to investigate the problems that a primary school teacher encountered during the initial reading and writing education, and also her solutions to these problems. The teacher as a researcher had some interviews with other teachers in order to determine whether the other teachers came across the same problems during the teaching process or not.A mixed method, as a research tool, is used in the study including action research and case study methods which are widely known in a qualitative method tradition. Action research has been chosen since the teacher not only made observations but also recorded the observations she made on her journals. The research covers a five week period, which begins first week of the school and continuous until the end of the first term. The research has been carried out with 15 pupils of first grade of a primary school in the city of Trabzon. Semi-structured interviews have been conducted with 30 class teachers in the city of Trabzon. The journals kept by the teacher and semi-structured interviews generate the data. The data are processed by content analysis, primarily. Concept maps are made in coding of the data.Many factors that affect the process of initial reading and writing can be found in the analysis of research journals. Mainly; family, pupils, physical facilities, curriculum, and the teacher herself form these factors come out. The pupils, family, use of technology, reading and writing techniques and the offers of the teachers are reasons for the factors which are gathered from interview data. Based on these data, if we construct a concept map; pupils, family, teacher, curriculum and problems generated from school are the featured themes.With this study; the problems that emerge during the initial reading and writing processes, and the solution offers of the research teacher and the interviewees are presented.Key words: Initial reading and writing method, mixed method, sound-based sentence method.