Situations that Make Students Happy and Unhappy in Schools

Abstract

Many research carried out so far have demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between individuals' happiness and aspects of their behaviours. That is to say, happiness has a positive relationship with life quality, job satisfaction, aggression, self-efficacy levels of individuals, vitality, optimism, altruism (self-sacrifice for the welfare of others without benefit), authenticity and self-compassion. According to the results of the research carried out by Senturk (2011), it was observed that the level of happiness may change in terms of socio-demographic features; however it provides similar results fundamentally. In his research, Sarici (2016) established that the level of happiness in the family has a positive meaningful impact on the examination results of secondary school education. In a research conducted with university students, no meaningful difference among the happiness, optimism and altruism levels of students was observed in terms of gender variable. However, the same research demonstrated that there was a meaningful difference among the happiness, optimism and altruism levels of students in terms of faculty variable. The aim of the present research is to determine the educational situations that make student teachers happy and unhappy throughout their educational lives. In line with this aim, the following questions were studied: What are the school experiences-memories that make students happy? What are the school experiences-memories that make students unhappy? What should be increased and provided more in schools? Research Model? Case study method from qualitative research methods was used in the research. Case study enables deliberate examination of the research subject. It is a favoured method in understanding various topics of education, especially when the questions of 'what, how, why' are posed in the present research, the case is educational experiences and memories that make students happy and unhappy throughout their educational lives. Data Collection, Analysis and Interpretation; In the research, interviewing method was used in data collection. The data were analysed with content analysis techniques and were presented regarding the questions posed in interview processes. Accordingly, similar data were gathered within certain concepts. They were organized and interpreted. Opinions of the participants were cited without any change. Identities of the participants were kept private and pseudonyms for the students were used in each interview form in data analysis. Research process and operations were tried to be explained in detail in order to increase the transmissibility of the research. All of the findings were provided in order to increase the internal consistency. Study Group; Maximum variation sampling techniques from purposeful sampling method were used in determining the study group of the research. The study group consists of 178 students who study in various sections of faculty of education in Duzce province in 2016-2017 academic year. Also, the students participated in the research voluntarily. Results; since the educational system is based on examinations and grades, students become happy when they get higher grades and they become unhappy for low grades. In secondary education, what makes students happy the most is the presence and quality of social relationship, as a result of social and emotional development. It was observed that university students become happier when they experience positive behaviours and attitudes for their interests, values and respects.