Evaluation of middle school students' perceptions of happy school

The aim of this study is to determine the happiness perceptions of middle school students regarding the schools they study at and to reveal the basic elements and qualities expected to be possessed by the school in which they will feel peaceful and comfortable during the education process and where they will be happy to be in. In addition, it is also aimed to determine whether the qualities of a happy school differ according to the gender and grade variables of the students. In this research, data was collected using triangulation design, one of the mixed research methods. The sample of the quantitative part of the study consists of 480 students studying in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades of secondary school in Artuklu and Midyat districts of Mardin province and selected by simple random sampling method. For the qualitative dimension of the research, data were collected from 18 volunteer students from different schools using the maximum diversity sampling technique. The "Student School Happiness Scale" developed by the researcher and a semi-structured interview form were used as data collection tools in the study. Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U, independent sample t-test, Kruskal-Wallis H, one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe tests were used to analyze the data through the SPSS 23 program. Content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. According to the findings obtained as a result of the study, students' happy school perceptions were very high in the sub-dimensions of relations with teachers and emotional attachment to the school, high in the sub-dimensions of relations with students and the physical structure of the school, and moderate in the sub-dimensions of activities at school, democratic environment of the school and communication at school. According to the gender variable, a significant difference was found between students' school happiness levels in favor of female students only in the emotional attachment to school sub-dimension. According to the grade variable, a significant difference was found between 6th-8th and 7th-8th grades in favor of 6th and 7th grades in the sub-dimensions of relationships with teachers, activities at school and democratic environment of the school. As a result of the content analysis, it was determined that the majority of the students were happy in their schools. In addition, it was observed that the students' views on the basic qualities of a happy school were grouped under the general theme of "Happy School" under seven sub-themes: "Physical structure", "Education-teaching process", "Extracurricular activities", "Teachers", "Students", "School principal", and "Family".