Turkish students' perceptions of their actual and preferred biology classroom learning environments

This study investigated differences between students’ perceptions of actual and preferred learning environments. Data were collected with the actual and preferred form of the What is Happening in This Classroom (WIHIC) questionnaire from 1474 high school students in four inner city schools in Bursa, Turkey. A total number of 11 biology teachers with 52 of their classes participated in the study. Results showed that students’ scores on the preferred form were significantly higher than those of the actual form on each scale of the WIHIC. Correlations between actual and preferred perceptions were medium to high. Teachers with high effective classroom profiles seemed to better realize the preferred classroom environment than teachers with other WIHIC classroom profiles. Finally, for girls smaller discrepancies between actual and preferred perceptions were found than for boys