The affect of school open spaces to high school students' personality development

Adolescence is an important period in personality development. For that reason, personality development is emphasized in many theories about adolescence. There are many factors that are effective in personality development. Physical environment is one of these factors. The specialities that the schools should have are explained by the concept of "School Climate" in literature. This study is emphasized on the physical and social dimensions of "School Climate". The purpose of this study is to determine the effects of School Climate on the personality development of students by making a comparison between the schools which are adequate from physical and social dimensions and the schools which are partly or not adequate from physical and social dimensions of school climate concept. The application part of this study consists of four phases. In the first phase of the study, the schools where the application was going to be done were decided by evaluating various specialities of them. In the second phase, the rates of meeting the student needs of the schools were determined. In the third phase, the relationship between the adequacy of school gardens and student activities were determined. In the last phase of the study, effect of open school areas to the personality development of high school youth was determined by evaluating all the data obtained. As a result of the study, the importance of the need of school open areas to fulfil the student needs and the schools which have a favourable school climate from physical and social dimensions are one of the factors that have a positive effect on the personality development of the students were proven. The kind of school environment that would support the personality development of high school youth was introduced with the developed working model.