Secondary School Students' Cognitive Structures on the Concepts of Good School and Good Teacher

The aim of this research is to reveal the cognitive structures of secondary school students regarding the concepts of "good school" and "good teacher". The survey model was used in this study. The data have been gathered through word association test. The study group of the research consists of 162 secondary school students studying in two different schools (state-private) in Isparta province between 2022 and 2023. According to the research result, it has been observed that students mostly associate the concept of good school with clean, teacher, lesson, student, achievement, environment, and education. On the other hand, the concept of good teacher is associated with the words polite, lesson, love, entertainment, discipline, and information. It was revealed that the students made connections between the concepts of good school and good teacher with the words respect, achievement, discipline, moral, helpful, and student. Finally, when the words associated with the concepts of good school and good teacher are examined by public and private secondary school students, it is understood that the cognitive structures of the students in the two school types are similar. [For the full proceedings, see ED654100.]