Morphological awareness and self-efficacy of speech and language pathologists, classroom teachers and special education teachers in Türkiye.

Abstract

As a component of metalinguistic knowledge, morphological awareness is intricately tied in with literacy skills. Hence, an adequate command of morphological awareness by the professionals providing therapy and education to school-age children is important forchildren's language and literacy skills. The current research aimed to assess and compare the self-efficacy and morphological awareness of speech and language pathologists (SLPs), classroom teachers (CTs), and special education teachers (SETs). A total of 258 individuals participated in the study - SLPs (n = 86), CTs (n = 77) and SETs (n = 95). A four-part survey composed of 30 Likert-type, short-answer, or multiple-choice items was sent to the participants through e-mails or social media. Data were analyzed via descriptive and comparative analysis methods. The findings showed that all the participants' self-efficacy levels were higher than half of all available points, suggesting confidence in their morphological awareness (M = 20.9, SD = 4.23). Furthermore, the results yielded no statistical difference among the three groups' self-efficacy scores. The morphological awareness of the participants was assessed through two tasks, morpheme counting and morpheme selection in nonwords, producing significant differences among the groups. The analyses indicated that the SLPs' morphological awareness was significantly higher than that of the educators (p<.05). The results suggest that SLPs and teachers should collaborate to improve children's literacy skills and that all professionals should enhance their morphological awareness.