Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the opinions of the prospective classroom teachers who learned to read and write with different types of writing methods, and the legibility levels of their writing. One of the qualitative research methods, phenomenology method was used in the study. The study group of the research consists of the teacher candidates studying in the 3rd and 4th grade in the Classroom Education Department of the Faculty of Education at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University in the academic year of 2018-2019. In order to evaluate the legibility of the writings of the prospective teachers participating in the study, the data were collected with the "Multi-Dimensional Legibility Scale" developed by Yıldız and Ateş (2007), and to evaluate their views about manuscript and cursive handwriting styles, the "Teacher Candidate Interview Form" was used. The data were collected with a semi-structured interview form, and NVIVO 12 Plus program was used in the modeling of the data. According to the analysis of the data obtained from the "Multidimensional Legibility Scale" using the "Dictation Studies Form", it was observed that the writings of the most of the participants were not legible, and they wrote more understandable and legible with manuscript writing style than cursive handwriting style. When the type of writing they learned to read and write for the first time was examined, it was concluded that the writings of those who first learned to read and write with manuscript writing style were more legible in texts written both in manuscript writing and in cursive handwriting compared to those who learned with cursive handwriting style. In the analysis of the findings obtained from the interview questions, when the opinions of the classroom teacher candidates participating in the study on the both writing types were compared, the students who learned the manuscript writing type with both writing types expressed more positive opinions.