Investigation of educational environments in secondary schools in terms of thinking friendly classroom characteristics

This research, based on various variables, aims to examine the level of thinking-friendly educational environment in secondary schools in accordance with the opinion of students. To this end, the level of thinking friendly educational environments in secondary schools has been investigated in terms of behaviors of teachers and students that promote or prevent thinking skills. The socio- economic level of school, class level, gender, parents' education level, family income, academic success, participation in club activities, and free time activities constitute the variables used in this research. This quantitative research, using a descriptive scanning model methodology, has examined the students of 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade in 6 secondary schools located in Adana central districts in the 2012 – 2013 academic period. 943 students participated to this study. The data is obtained by Thinking-Friendly Classroom Scale (TFCS) developed by Doğanay and Sarı (2012a), and Personal Information Form. TFCS is a 30-item measurement tool which consists of "Teacher behaviors that promote thinking", "Student behaviors that promote thinking" and "Behaviors that prevent thinking". In the analysis of the data, in addition to independent samples t test and one-way analysis of variance, descriptive statistics have been used. In order to evaluate whether the findings are significant or not, 05 significance level has been used. Scheffe F and LSD tests have been used for comparisons in the analysis of variance. One of the findings of this research is that the students, over average, perceive the level of thinking friendly environment in their classroom over average, as positively. Findings obtained in terms of the variables put forward that there is a positive difference in favor of the students who study at lower socio-economic levels. According to the grade level, it is seen that when the grade level goes up, Thinking Friendly Class Scale scores go down. Accordingly, this implies that positive perception of thinking class environment is higher among 5th graders compared to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders. It has been seen that female students perceive their classes more thinking friendly than male students. The variable of parents' education levels has not made any significant difference among the groups. Results of analysis of variance in terms of family income level show that, in the dimension of "Teacher Behaviors that promote thinking", there is a significant difference in favor of the students whose family incomes are high. It has been revealed that while behaviors that develop thinking skills are high for students whose academic success levels are high; behaviors that block thinking skills are high among students whose academic success is poor. It has been shown that participation in club activities makes a meaningful difference in behaviors that develop thinking. It has been concluded that while the frequency of the activities like reading books / newspapers, studying lessons and chatting / discussing with friends increases, the scores for behaviors that promote thinking increase; and when the frequency goes down, thinking preventing behaviors' scores go up. It has come out that when the frequency in terms of watching television and spending time on internet goes up, Thinking Friendly Class Scale scores go down. The variable of spending free time with friends has not made any difference on the results. The increase of the frequency of playing games with friends has slightly raised the TFCS scores. When the frequency of working after school to earn money goes up, TFCS scores go down. The students who spend their free time to help their parents have a more positive perception that their classroom environments are Thinking Friendly. In direction of the results, the study concluded with recommendations for researchers and provided clues for implementation. Keywords: Thinking, thinking friendly classroom environment, behaviors that promote thinking, behaviors that prevent thinking, secondary school