Examining Students’ Perceptions of Effective School Characteristics in Relation withCertain Variables

Abstract

Education is one of the oldest activities in mankind history. In practice, it is divided into two as formal and informal education. The ultimate goal of schools is student learning. The aim of this study is to determine perceptions of secondary school students regarding effectiveness of their school in terms of effective school characteristics and to ind out if their perception varies depending on gender and grade level of students. Present study is a sample of descriptive research as it attempts to highlight relationships between circumstances and whether such relationships vary depending on certain variables. In the study, the Scale for Effective School (SFES), which is developed by Günal (2014), was used as data collection instrument. The validity evidences of the scale, which was administered to ind out students’ perceptions about school effectiveness, were obtained by Explanatory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Conirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). As an evidence of internal reliability of the SFES, Cronbach’s alpha coeficient for total scale was also calculated and found to be α=0.91. Study group was taken from 13 secondary schools in Trabzon province during the 2012-2013 academic year. As a result of the study, relatively the most important subscale of effective schools was found to be “Teaching Leadership”. The second most important subscale was “Positive School-Parent Relationship”.