Investigation of School Climate Perceptions of High School Students

The aim of this study was to investigate the school climate perception of high school students according to demographic variables. Total 6094 (2859 boys and 3235 girls) high school students from 12 different provinces participated in the study. For data collection School climate scale and personal information form were used. Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) and t-test were used to test the difference of school climate perceptions of high school students (provinces, gender, age, grade, education level of mother and father and school preference). Findings indicated that school climate perception showed significant difference by gender and grade; girls perceptions were found more positive than boys’, similarly younger student’s (9th graders) school climate perceptions were found more positive than that of 10th and 11th graders. Students whose mothers and fathers were university graduates were found having significantly greater negative school climate perceptions than students whose mothers and fathers were elementary, secondary and high school graduates. Those students who voluntarily had chosen their schools were found having more positive school climate perceptions than students who had not voluntarily chosen their schools. These findings were discussed and interpreted in the light of literature.