Turkish secondary education students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment and their attitude towards Biology

Abstract

The domain of learning environments research has produced many promising findings, leading to an enhancement of the teaching and learning process in many countries. However, there have been a limited number of studies in this field in Turkey. For that reason, the purpose of the present study was to examine Turkish high school students’ perceptions of their classroom environment in biology and to investigate relationships between these perceptions and students’ attitudes toward biology. Secondly, the study aimed to investigate differences in students’ attitudes toward biology by gender, grade level, and parental education. Perception data were gathered with 1983 ninth and tenth grade students from 57 biology classes at schools in two major Turkish cities. Data were collected with an adapted and translated version of the “What is Happening in This Classroom” (WIHIC) instrument and the “Test of Science Related Attitudes” (TOSRA). Correlation and regression analyses revealed that students’ perceptions of their learning environment in biology were significantly associated with their attitudes. In addition, results of the study revealed that there were significant differences gender and grade level. The study discusses these findings and compares them to prior learning environment studies.