Abstract:

The purpose of this research is to investigate first grade teachers’ opinions about 4+4+4 education system and school readiness of first grade students at elementary schools. Twenty first grade teachers working for elementary schools in Samsun province participated in this study. Participants were recruited using maximum diversity sampling procedure. Data were collected by using semistructured interviews and analyzed with content analysis technique. Findings of the study suggested that teachers have different notions about the education system, some believe that the infrastructure required for transforming to this education system does not exist and this infrastructure shortage manifests itself in various ways; children who start disadvantageously, such as not having preschool education or starting school at an earlier age, suffer from a series of issues in terms of physical, cognitive, social and emotional readiness of children and they fail to display skills material for learning how to read and write.

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