Primary school students and teachers' opinions about summary writing: A qualitative analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the current study is to elicit the opinions of Turkish primary school students and teachers about summary writing. The study group of the current research was selected by means of the criterion sampling method. The study group is comprised of 85 primary school fifth grade students and 17 classroom teachers teaching these students. As the data collection tool in the current study, a semi-structured student interview form and a semi-structured teacher interview form were used. In the analysis of the collected data, the content analysis method was employed. The findings obtained have revealed that there is a considerable consistency between the students and teachers’ responses. Majority of the teachers stated that they have their students write summaries regularly and then that they provide feedbacks for their students by making corrections or writing notes on their summaries. The teachers think that summarizing develops written expression to the greatest extent and teaches students how and where to use punctuation marks. The teachers also stated that they had not taken any training about summarizing at any level of their training. The students, on the other hand, stated that their summaries are only signed by the teacher or the teacher has them read their summaries. Moreover, the students think that summary writing facilitates recall, that their teachers do not give them information about how to write a summary and that they do not show them samples of summary writing.