Assessment of classroom management skills of elementary and middle school teachers according to various variables (The case of İstanbul)

This study aims at determining the classroom management competencies of elementary and middle school teachers as well as at finding out if these competencies vary in statistically significant ways depending on gender, subject, experience, university attended and grade level taught. The focus of the research is teachers who work in elementary and middle schools in Istanbul. As of October 2014, there are 78.139 teachers in the elementary and middle schools in Istanbul. As part of this study, 301 teachers were surveyed. The research is based on the descriptive research model. The classroom management competencies of teachers were assessed by using the Five Strand Classroom Management Competencies Survey developed by Gündüz (2001). The five strands of the survey are management of the physical environment, planning and implementation, relational order of the class, effective time management, and behavior improvement. The Cronbach Alpha value, which indicates the credibility of the survey, was calculated as 0,84. According to the results of the research, the classroom management competency level of teachers is always adequate ( =3,11); their competency level for management of physical environment is usually adequate ( =3,00); their competency level for planning and implementation is always adequate ( =3,05); their competency level for the relational order of the class is always adequate ( =3,22), their time management competency level is always adequate ( =3,09); and their competency level for behavior improvement is always adequate ( =3,16). The classroom management competencies of teachers vary depending on gender, experience and the grade level they work with. It was found that female teachers have more effective classroom management competencies in comparison to male teachers. At the same time, teachers with 21 or more years of teaching experience were found to have better classroom management competencies than teachers with less experience. Last but not the least, Grade 1 teachers and middle school teachers were found to have higher classroom management competencies. Key words: Classroom, Classroom Management, Student, Teacher.