Teachers' attitudes towards gender equality and students' academic self-efficacy as predictors of classroom climate

The purpose of this research is to test students' perceptions of classroom climate in terms of some variables, and also to examine the predictive value of teachers' attitudes towards gender equality and students' academic self-efficacy on classroom climate and the relationship between these variables. The sample of the research consists of 933 students, determined by multi stage sampling technique, from the universe of students studying in Anatolian high schools in the central districts of Konya. "Classroom Climate Scale Short Form", "Teachers' Attitudes Towards Gender Equality Scale" and "Academic Self-Efficacy Scale" were used in this research which is designed with a quantitative approach and causal-comparative and relational scanning models. Data were analyzed using t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Post-hoc Tukey and Dunnett's C, simple and multiple regression analysis and Hayes Process mediation analysis tests. According to the findings obtained in the research, it was determined that student perceptions did not differ significantly in the sub-dimensions of "participation", "teacher support", "task orientation" and "clarity of rules" of the classroom climate according to the gender variable, whereas males had higher scores in the sub-dimensions of "relationship" and "order-organization". While no significant difference was found in the sub-dimensions of "participation" and "clarity of rules" according to the class size variable, significant differences were found between some groups in other sub-dimensions. According to the grade level variable, while there was no significant difference in the "participation" sub-dimension, it was determined that the scores of some groups differed significantly in other sub-dimensions. It was found that teachers' egalitarian attitudes towards gender positively predicted the sub-dimensions of "participation", "relationship", "teacher support", "task orientation" and "clarity of rules" of the classroom climate, whereas they did not predict the sub-dimension of "order-organization", and students' academic self-efficacy positively predicted all sub-dimensions of the classroom climate. In addition, out of the six mediation models established to test the mediating effect of students' academic self-efficacy on the relationship between teachers' attitudes towards gender equality and classroom climate, all models except the "task orientation" sub-dimension were found to be significant.