Changes in Reading Attitudes and Attitudes Toward Book-Reading Habits Following Literature Circles Among Preservice Turkish Language Teachers: An Embedded Mixed-Methods Study

Reading attitudes and attitudes toward book-reading habits are related but distinct constructs. This study examined within-group pretest–posttest differences in these constructs and participants’ experiences of a seven-week literature-circle program. A quantitatively driven embedded mixed-methods design combined a single-group pretest–posttest phase (n = 36) with post-program interviews (n = 35) at a public university in Türkiye. Analyses included paired-samples t tests, effect sizes, 95% confidence intervals, Holm adjustment, and Wilcoxon signed-rank sensitivity analyses. Interviews underwent hybrid deductive–inductive content analysis, and findings were integrated through joint displays. After Holm adjustment, the reading-attitude outcome meeting the significance threshold depended on the method: perceived importance and value met the threshold in the t test (dz = 0.54), whereas overall reading attitude did so in the Wilcoxon analysis. No outcome met the threshold in both analyses. Estimates for contribution to personal and social development and all outcomes concerning attitudes toward book-reading habits were small and imprecise, with confidence intervals including zero. Participants reported interest, value awareness, purposeful reading, regular reading during the program, and peer sharing. These retrospective accounts contextualized rather than independently confirmed the quantitative findings. The results do not indicate uniform improvement across outcomes, and the single-group design precludes causal attribution.