Teachers' and students' views about the democratic value of classroom management behaviours of high school teachers

Democracy is a term which is gradually coming into and affecting both individuals? and societies? lives more and more, despite the fact that it has no common definition everybody has an agreement on. Democracy, as a fact which affects the societies immensely and can not be defined but is learned just through experience, has been one of the essential assets of the societies and individuals not only on the account of liberalistic and egalitarian structure it offers but also because it introduces some rights including the freedom of thought and speech, to vote and to be elected depending on the principle that people shall decide about and use. Democracy refers to an administrative form which, as against a static life or culture, always develops and changes provided that its basic principles are reserved. A democratic administration is formed through democratic values and democracies can only be developed as long as these values are maintained and advocated. Therefore those societies believing in democracy demand their citizens to embrace these values. Because a democratic social structure can only be formed by individuals who embrace and internalize democratic values. And this can be achieved through education. Education is the first and foremost prerequisite to having the individuals achieve the values and final goals of the society they live in. A democratic society can only be formed with democratic individuals. Raising democratic individuals is only possible through a democratic education and democratic school. Students in the schools can acquire democratic attitudes and values through their teachers whom the have face to face communication and take as a model, and through educational experiences they are offered. At this point it is of great importance that to what extend the teachers use the democratic behaviors in the class setting where they have the most concentrated and permanent interaction with the students, because these attitudes and behaviors will directly affect their thoughts and experiences later. This study intends to measure to what extend the general high school teachers exhibit democratic attitudes and behaviors in class management based on the views of general high school students and teachers. The population of this scanning type of study comprises 916 teachers and 22023 students from 19 official general high schools located within the X centre and district municipality borders of the province of Malatya during 2005-2006 school year. The participants are 470 teachers and 10698 students from 8 high schools. For data collection ?Democratic Class Management Scale? developed by Demirtaş (2004) was used. The items were designed according to a Likert Type scale with points ranging from 1 to 5. The draft scale was first administered on 218 students randomly chosen from various programs and grades of Educational Faculty in 2002-2003 academic year. The construct validity of the scale was measured through factor analysis. In factor analysis basic components and Varimax Rotation Technique were used. In order to measure the Internal consistency which is one indicator of the reliability of the scale Cronbach Alpha coefficient value was calculated and fould .76, which indicates that the scale is reliable. In order to use the data collection medium in this study, it was rearranged fort he teachers and students. The items in the scale were rearranged so as to address both to the teachers and students. The draft scales designed in two seperate forms for both teachers and students were first administered on 120 high school teacher and 175 high school students in 2005-2006 school year and the results were subjected to validity and reliability analysis once again. The construct validity of the rearranged scales was tested using factor analysis. In order to measure the internal consistency which is one indicator of the reliability of the scale, Cronbach Alpha coefficient value was calculated, which revealed .76 for students and .86 for teachers. Prior to the analysis of the data, the equality of the variances was tested using Levene?s Test for Equality of Variances and after variances were found homogeneous t test and F test were applied. In cases where F values are significant, LSD test was used in order to detect the source of difference. In order to find whether the teacher and student views differ, t test was used. XI The findings of the study are as follows: 1. The teachers working in the general high schools find their class management behaviors democratic. As for the scale asking the teachers how often they exhibit democratic behaviors in class, the means of the teachers answering the items as ?always? are as follows: ?I give the word to the students? (X =4.73); ?I value my students as individuals? (X = 4.70), ?I listen to my students when necessary? (X =4.70), ?My students can freely express their personal ideas in the class? (X =4.53 ), ?I try to have my students participate to lesson? (X =4.65), ?I try to understand my students? (X =4.60). On the other hand for the same scale the means of the teachers answering the items as ?rarely? are as follows: ?I have prejudices against my students? (X =1.21 ), ?I exhibit humiliating behaviors against students in classroom? (X =1.27 ), ?I discriminate between students? (X =1.36 ), ?I behave like a dictator in class? (X =1.36 ). 2. The ?t test? used in order to find whether the high school teachers? views about democratic nature of their class management behaviors differ according to ?gender? variable revealed no significant difference between teachers? views. Both male and female teachers have similar views about democratic class management behaviors. Both teacher groups state that they behave democratically in classroom. 3. The ?F test? (Anova) used in order to find whether the high school teachers? views about democratic nature of their class management behaviors differ according to ?seniority? variable revealed no significant difference between teachers views based on their Professional seniority. 4. The ?F test? (Anova) used in order to find whether the high school teachers? views about democratic nature of their class management behaviors differ according to ?subject? variable revealed no significant difference between teachers views based on their subject field, either. Like in ?gender? and ?seniority? variables teachers state that they behave democratically in classroom. XII 5. The students in general high schools do not find their teachers? class management behaviors democratic. As for the scale asking the students how often the democratic behaviors are exhibited in class, the means of the students answering the items as ?rarely? are as follows: ?Can you criticize your teachers when necessary?? (X = 2.38) , ?Do your teachers listen to you when necessary?? (X = 2.40) ?Do your teachers try to have you participate to lesson?? (X = 2.43). On the other hand for the same scale the means of the students answering the items as ?usually? are as follows: ?Do your teachers give you the word during lesson?? (X = 4.04), ?Do your teachers behave like a dictator during the lesson?? (X = 3.73), ?Do your teachers exhibit humiliating behaviors during lesson?? (X = 3.68). 6. The high school students? views about democratic nature of their teachers? class management behaviors do not differ significantly according to the ?gender? variable. 7. The high school students? views about democratic nature of their teachers? class management behaviors differ significantly according to the ?grade? variable. LSD test was applied in order to find the source of difference and 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade students were found to have differing views. 1st grade students views (X = 79.072) differ significantly from 2nd grade students views (X = 76.523) in favor of former; 1st grade students views (X = 79.072) differ significantly from 3rd grade students views (X =74.094) in favor of former, and 2nd grade students views (X = 76.523) differ significantly from 3rd grade students views (X =74.094) in favor of former. 8. Teacher and student views about the democratic nature of the general high school teachers? class management behaviors were found to be significantly different. While the teachers think that their class management attitudes and behaviors are democratic, the students do not think their teachers? class management behaviors are democratic.