Investigation of individual and environmental factors affecting the level of primary school fourth grade students 'learning

The aim of this study is to examine the individual and environmental factors affecting primary school fourth grade students' reading comprehension level and the relationship between these factors. In order to test the research questions, the relational screening model was used, one of the quantitative research methods. The research was carried out in Ankara in the academic years of 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021. The research group consists of 365 students attending the fourth grade, 365 parents and 11 classroom teachers teaching these students. Reading comprehension scale, prosodic reading scale, reading attitude scale, reading motivation scale, vocabulary knowledge scale, pre-knowledge test, family effectiveness scale in creating reading culture and teacher effectiveness scale for reading were used in data collection. AMOS program was used to create the structural equation model in the analysis of the data. ANOVA, t-test, frequency and percentage analysis were used for other data obtained quantitatively. According to the findings obtained from the structural equation model, all variables in the model are significantly predictors of students' reading comprehension scores. Individual factors have higher predictive power than environmental factors. Among the individual factors, the variable with the highest predictive power was "prior knowledge" and then "vocabulary." The variable with the highest predictive power among environmental factors was "family's participation in reading". When it is considered from the relational perspective that family income significantly predicts reading comprehension, it is seen that the reading comprehension levels of the students included in the upper income group differ significantly from those in the middle and lower groups. Among the environmental factors, the variable with the lowest predictive power is "parental education level". However, from a relational perspective, it was determined that there were significant differences between the groups and the average comprehension of the students whose parents had undergraduate and higher education was higher. It has been found to be higher than students. It was determined that the type of school the students attended was significantly correlated with reading comprehension, and the average scores of the students attending private school were higher than their peers attending public school. Another finding of the study is that the activities teachers perform in and out of the classroom for reading comprehension do not make a significant difference on students' reading comprehension averages. As a result, a model has been obtained in which the factors affecting reading comprehension can be classified according to a certain structure and effect level, and that will help educators in the applications to be made. Key Words : Reading comprehension, structural equation model, family's participation in reading, teacher effect, socio-economic level, vocabulary, prior knowledge