Geography Teachers’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Classroom Management

Abstract

This study scrutinizes geography teachers’ attitude and belief levels regarding classroom management. As a matter of fact, classroom management is one of the prominent areas emphasized by all educators. Descriptive correlational survey model was used in the study. Study group includes 58 geography teachers working in Sivas province during the 2015-2016 academic year. Convenience sampling method was employed while forming the study group. The Attitudes & Beliefs on Classroom Control Inventory developed by Martin, Yin & Baldwin (1998) and adapted into Turkish language by Sarvan (2002) was employed to collect the data. The statistical analyses were carried out using SPSS 17. To analyze the relationships between the variables, t-test for independent samples, Mann Whitney-U test, and Pearson’s correlation were used. Significance level was set to be p<.05. Geography teachers’ mean scores for the sub-dimensions of instructional management and people management and their mean total scores for classroom management attitude and belief corresponded to medium level (interactionalist classroom management). Their mean scores for the sub-dimension of behavior management corresponded to low level (non-interventionist classroom management). No significant difference was found between the geography teachers’ mean scores for the sub-dimensions of instructional management, people management, and behavior management and total scores for classroom management attitude and belief by gender and the type of the high school they work in. In addition, no significant relationship was found between years in teaching and instructional management. However, a negative significant relationship was detected between teachers’ years in teaching and people management, behavior management, and classroom management attitude and belief. It is recommended that arrangements and studies be made for teachers to develop attitudes and beliefs that will allow their students to know themselves, make decisions, and carry out tasks either individually or in group.