Examining the Relationship Between School Size and School Climate in Public High Schools

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationships between school size and school climate in public high schools in Turkey. Survey model was used and the data was collected from 6,755 participants who are working and studying in 2009-2010 school year, in fifteen different city centre public high schools. Data was collected by "Perception of School Climate Scale (PSCS)" from 260 administrators, 1,084 teachers and 5,411 students. Results revealed that communication and human relations, problem behaviors and the sense of belonging to school varied depending on school size. Small schools surpassed medium and large schools in terms of communication and human relations. However, as the number of student’s increased, the rate of problem behaviors also increased. Similarly, the sense of belonging in small schools was more intense in comparison to medium and large schools. According to the results of the study, the reduction of the schools size would be appropriate.