Abstract
A survey was conducted by questionnaire of fifty-five novice kindergarten and first grade public school teachers regarding the degree to which their reading methodology course work prepared them to understand, assess, and develop phonemic awareness in beginning readers. For this descriptive study, respondents included forty-nine novice kindergarten and first grade teachers working in ASCA Region 10 on the central coast of California during the 1999–2000 school year. When appropriate, the means and variances between groups were analyzed using a two-tailed t-test for independent samples. The main tool for analysis of these data was the mode. This study found that novice teachers exited their credentialing program with an understanding of the role of phonemic awareness. Almost half the novice teachers surveyed lacked the skills to assess students' phonemic awareness. Slightly more than half of the respondents reported they could not develop students' phonemic awareness or apply their college/university reading methodology course work to their classroom instruction. Slightly more than half of the respondents stated that they did not take the Reading Instruction Competency Assessment (RICA) before entering their classrooms. The respondents who were required to take the RICA indicated that their teacher preparation program did very little to prepare them. Data collected from the focus questions indicated that teacher preparation classes, seminars/inservice sessions, and personal experiences were beneficial to improving novice teachers' reading instruction. Analysis of the data collected from the various educational institutions showed that there was no significant difference among CSU, UC, private or other institutions. As a result of this study and the literature search, it was concluded that phonemic awareness is a critical skill for beginning readers. It is important that novice teachers exit their credentialing programs with the skills to assess and develop beginning readers' phonemic awareness. Teacher preparation programs must provide novice teachers with a solid understanding of how to assess and teach reading to a variety of learners. It is recommended that novice teachers' course work be relevant and meaningful to their potential classroom experiences.