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The purposes of this study were to explore students&rsquo / perceptions of the extent to which constructivist approaches are present in chemistry classes at high school level in Turkey, to assess students&rsquo / perceptions of their chemistry teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours in their classroom learning environments and to investigate the learning strategies of students in chemistry classes considering school type, gender, and grade level differences. In this study, the Constructivist Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLES), the Teacher Communication Behaviour v Questionnaire (TCBQ) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used as measuring instruments. In addition, the questionnaires included some questions for demographic characteristics of participants. The study was conducted in conveniently selected two schools (private and public) in Ankara with a total of 994 ninth and tenth grade students in the second term of 2006-2007 semesters. Data obtained from the administration of measuring instruments by using the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) The results of the study indicated that school type, gender and grade level of the students had significant effect on perception of classroom learning environment, teacher&rsquo / communication behaviour and perceived use of learning strategies. For instance, students in private schools perceived their classroom-learning environment more constructivist than student in public school. In addition girls rated that, their learning environment and teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours more favourably than did boys. The study also showed that students use rehearsal-learning strategy mostly in their chemistry classrooms.

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of context based instruction over traditionally designed chemistry instruction on 9th grade students&rsquo / understanding of cleaning materials topic and their attitudes toward environment. Moreover students&rsquo / science process skills were measured for using as a covariate. Participants were 222 ninth grade students from eight classes in two different types of high schools in Ankara. Experimental group students were instructed with context based instruction and control group students were instructed with traditionally designed instruction through five weeks. Cleaning Materials Achievement Test and Attitudes toward Environment Scale were used as pre and post tests. Science Process Skills test was used only as a pretest. MANCOVA technique was used as a statistical analysis procedure. According to statistical analyses, there was a significant mean difference with respect to context based instruction and traditionally designed instruction on cleaning materials topic in favor of experimental group and no significant difference with respect to attitude toward environment. There was no significant mean difference with respect to school type in both Cleaning Materials Achievement Test scores and Attitude toward Environment Scale scores. Beside, science process skills were a strong predictor for understanding the cleaning materials topic. Four focus groups were conducted separately regarding the students&rsquo / career choices after the treatment to have an idea over the quality of the instruction in experimental group. Focus group results revealed that students were appreciated and more motivated with context based instructional design.

Comparative analyses of district-run public schools and charter schools are limited to performance outcomes. There is a dearth of research on how the school-types vary on factors consequential to performance such as school climate. Public-private distinctions, such as in organizational autonomy, value orientations, funding structures, and management practices, could result in school climate dissimilarities between district-run public schools and charter schools. The aim of this dissertation is to assess the influence organizational factors have on school climate and determine if school-type affects school climate. Student and staff school climate survey data from the Miami-Dade school district were utilized for this dissertation. Structural equation modeling was employed to test theoretical models of students’ and staffs’ perceptions of school climate using data from 2001-2002 through 2015-2016 academic years. Within-between effects panel regression was utilized to test the effect of school-type on school climate constructs over time using data from 2005-2006 through 2015-2016 academic years. The structural equation results demonstrate that milieu, ecology, culture, and organizational structure influence students’ and staffs’ perceptions of their schools’ climates. Ecology has the strongest association with students’ perceptions of school climate. Job satisfaction, a part of milieu and culture, has the strongest association with staffs’ perceptions of school climate. The results indicate that the theoretical models of school climate employed by this study are sound. The within-between effects panel regression results demonstrate that characteristics inherent to school-type have a plausible influence on students’ perceptions of school climate, but not for staff. Charter school students rated their school climates more favorably than traditional public schools, but when other factors are controlled, traditional public schools and magnet schools had more favorable ratings. Public-sector values, collective bargaining, and school district oversight may be beneficial to schools’ climates. This dissertation underscores the impact management and funding structures have on school climate. The author recommends that the school climate concept and evaluations of schools’ organizational practices be incorporated into school improvement policies. The milieu, culture, ecology, and organizational structures of schools should be reviewed when assessing school quality.