Preschool teacher' views on early literacy skills

This research was conducted to examine the views of preschool teachers about early literacy skills. Purposive sampling method was used to determine the study group. 20 pre-school teachers working in official kindergartens in Bursa Province İnegöl District participated in the research. The research was conducted using a qualitative research model. In the study, a semi-structured interview form created by taking expert opinion was used. The data of the study were collected through one by one interviews with the teachers. The obtained data were analyzed using the content analysis method. According to the findings obtained from the research; The majority of the interviewed teachers did not know the concept of early literacy or they knew it incompletely and incorrectly and interpreted it as early learning of literacy, that phonological awareness and letter knowledge skills were known the most among the early literacy skills by the teachers. It includes only vowels, it is stated that this should be given in primary school, not in pre-school education, ready-made worksheets and activity books are used intensively in the activities related to early literacy skills. The acquisitions related to early literacy skills in the education program are generally sufficient but can be improved by the teachers. It is seen that the book center is mostly used to support early literacy skills and written stimuli in the classroom are mostly not included. It has been concluded that they did not receive training on early literacy skills before and during the service and they needed training in this field, and they demanded that the trainings in this field to be conducted face to face and in practice. Suggestions were made regarding the findings obtained as a result of the study.