A study on the evaluation of educational environments for improving reading skills: The case of van province

The aim of this study is to evaluate educational environments aimed at improving reading skills in the context of the opinions of Turkish teachers and secondary school students. The study was designed according to the qualitative research method. Turkish teachers working in public secondary schools in the central districts of Van province in the 2023-2024 academic year and secondary school students at different grade levels studying in these schools were included in the study. Semi-structured interview forms created by the researcher were used as data collection tools in determining teacher and student opinions. The data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the data obtained as a result of the analysis, teachers and students want educational environments to be rich in reading materials, to be designed away from traditional understanding, and to have a library in educational environments. Teachers emphasized the importance of reading activities carried out with the family and lessons taught by appealing to more than one sense organ with multimedia materials. When the results of students' opinions are examined, students say that they prefer educational environments enriched with technological opportunities over traditional environments. Teachers and students shared the positive and negative aspects of education/reading environments. The striking results in these contexts are that there are reading areas in the school gardens, the classrooms are large, there is a rich library, the educational environment is exam-centered, reading usually takes place in the classroom, and some students are reluctant and prejudiced. There are also opinions of teachers and students stating that classroom boards, school corridors and school gardens designed to encourage reading will positively affect students' attitudes towards reading. Participants emphasized that it is easier to focus on reading in normal temperature and natural light, and that the material read in a quiet environment is easier to understand. It is expected that these results obtained in the study will contribute to the improvement of existing educational environments, the design of educational environments to improve reading skills and to draw an important road map for other researchers in the field.