TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ VIEWS ABOUT THE HIGH SCHOOL TEACHERS’ DEMOCRATIC CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT BEHAVIORS

The purpose of this research is to determine the teachers’ and students’ views about to what extend high school teachers display democratic attitudes and behaviors while managing classroom. This study also aims at investigating both teachers’ views according to gender, professional experiences, and subject variables and students’ views according to gender and grade variables. To this end “Democratic Classroom Management Scale” was administered on the participating teachers and students. The teacher of this descriptive study comprises of a total number of 916 teachers and a total number of 22.023 students from state high schools in Malatya city center during 2005-2006 semester. The sample of the study is 227 teachers and 953 students selected from 8 state high schools. Research results revealed that teachers’ and students’ views differed significantly. While teachers state that they behave in a democratic manner, students think the opposite. Also it was found that students’ views differed significantly according to gender and grade variables.