Abstract

The aim of this cross-sectional study is investigate to what extent acquainted prospective Turkish teachers are with qualified works of children’s literature. A convenience sample of 146 university students studying at the Turkish teaching department at a university in the Central Black Sea Region completed a questionnaire to determine the qualified works of children’s literature about which the students knew. Firstly, books which were assessed as quality by students for primary and secondary school pupils were classified using frequencies and percentages. In the second stage of the analysis, appropriate books suiting the definition of quality books for children were selected according to Çer’s (2016a, 2016b) suggestions, and the foreknowledge levels of each student for quality books were determined. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal-Wallis H test were performed to examine gender and grade level differences in foreknowledge levels. Results of this study showed that the level of foreknowledge of Turkish prospective teachers about quality books for children for primary and secondary school students was quite low. Additionally, being female and grade level is associated with qualified works of children’s literature which the students knew. Such that, female prospective teachers significantly more acquainted with quality books for secondary school than males and the junior and senior students were significantly more acquainted with books for primary school than the freshmen and sophomore students. Senior students were also significantly more acquainted with books for secondary school than the freshmen, sophomore and junior students.

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