Development of value-centered school culture scale

The aim of the present study is to develop a valid and reliable scale which can assess the value-centered school culture. In this very study, descriptive survey model is used. The population of the study is composed of teachers who are in charge in primary, secondary and high school levels in the province of Sakarya within the academic year of 2018-2019. And the sampling of study is composed of 548 teachers who are in charge of different educational levels, branches and school types in the province of Sakarya. In the process of study, 54-articled draft form which has been obtained through reviewing the related literature and receiving expert opinion has been applied primarily to 247 teacher and the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) has been carried out for the obtained data. As for the results of exploratory factor analysis, it has been observed that the scale consists of 35-articles and 6 sub-dimensions. These sub-dimensions have been called as values-based vision and strategic planning, school-environment relation, school management-teacher cooperation, teacher modelling, vocational development, monitoring and evaluating the instruction of the values. Subsequently the 35-articled scale has been applied to second group which consists of 301 teachers with the intention of carrying out the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). In consequence of CFA, two articles which are poorly compatible with the model have been extracted from the scale and 33 articled scale has been obtained. The consequences of CFA reveal that model fit indices of the scale are at a good level and its factor structure is verified. With the intention of measuring the internal consistency coefficient, the obtained scale has been subjected to the Cronbach Alpha reliability test. The Cronbach Alfa reliability of the whole scale and its sub-dimensions found as .964; 946; .915; .924; .807; .915 and .842 respectively. Accordingly, it can be seen that internal consistency of the scale is notably high. Within this context it is concluded that the scale which has been developed in order to determine values-based school culture and also compose of 33 articles and 6 dimensions is a valid and reliable assessment instrument. As a result, the developed scale can be used for the purpose of determining whether schools have values-based school culture and contributing to its formation processes. Within the process of the development of the scale variables like different school types, branches and educational levels have been taken into consideration and the sampling has been formed wide-ranging. In case of the being used of the scale in different groups like certain school types or certain branches it may be evaluated to do validity and reliability studies for these groups. Keywords: School Culture, School Climate, Values Education, Scale Development.