Is my school an effective school ? Headmaster and teacher views

Abstract

While effective school research became popular in 1960s it was neglected in Turkey until 1990s. The importance of school management and the role of school in development of the student individuals has been drawing more interest since 1990. The purpose of the current study is to find out whether primary schools are efficient with respect to the opinions of school masters and teachers or not. Case study approach was used in this study. Semi-structured interview were used as data collection instruments. Descriptive analysis was used to analyze data. The research was conducted with a volunteer manager and teacher who are primary school manager and teacher in Adana, Turkey. Effective school variables were determined by literature review within this concept. Common variables in an effective school were examined under the titles of manager and communication, teacher student relations, physical conditions, social life and relation with the environment. The results of the study has shown that, the headmaster of the school has good communication skills with his staff. Scarcely, lacking number of teachers, deficient physical conditions of the school and low educational background of the parents have negative impact on the development of the school. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Prof. Dr. Huseyin Uzunboylu