Students' Perceptions Regarding Freedom in Classroom

Abstract

Students' perceptions regarding the concept of freedom in the classroom and the behaviors that are considered as the acts of freedom in the classroom have been examined in this study. Data came from open-ended brainstorming interviews with 89 students who studied in Turkish Education, English Language Teaching and Art Education programs in a Faculty of Education. Specifically, four open-ended questions were used in the data collection process. The data were classified according to their themes and presented in tables. The result of the study demonstrated that most of the behaviors, that were found disturbing in the classroom by some teachers, were perceived as the acts of freedom for some students. Thus, one should be careful while interpreting the behaviours of the students: the same behavior can be seen as a violation of discipline by the teacher or an act of freedom by the student. In these situations where two opposite opinions conflict, the difficulties about managing the class will emerge. That's why instead of putting out rules at first, teachers and students need to find a common ground about classroom management with mutual understanding to have a healthy environment.