A CLUSTER ANALYSIS STUDY OF PROFILING LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN TURKISH HIGH SCHOOLS

Koksal Banoglu
Ministry of National Education
Dr. Mustafa Cakir
University of Marmara

Abstract

Profiles of learning environments perceived in high schools were investigated by means of hierarchical cluster analysis. Employing stratified random sampling procedure, data was collected from 985 students at 22 schools, those who study in 6 general, 13 Anatolian and 3 vocational high schools located across 12 different districts of Istanbul. By hierarchical cluster analysis, students’ perceptions were clustered and classified into 4 school learning environment profiles, namely “technology-rich & ideal” (profile A), “positive” (profile B), “moderately positive” (profile C) and “negative” (profile D) learning environments. It was revealed that 42.7% of general high school students and 53.1% of vocational high school students perceived “moderately positive learning environment” in their schools on the first rank, whereas 41.8% of Anatolian high school students mostly perceived “positive learning environment”. “Technology-rich & ideal” environment was ranked first among vocational high school students with 11.2 %.

Keywords

Learning environment, general high schools, Anatolian high schools, vocational high school, cluster analysis.

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