THE SENSE of COMMUNITY at UNDERGRADUATE SCHOOL STUDENTS

As social beings, humans are involved in different communities throughout their lives. These communities meet the need of socialization for human beings and make them get united around common values. The most effective one of these communities is the school community within which each individual takes part in one way or another. Each individual takes part in the school community in a certain period of his/her life and the experiences he/she has got there affect his/her life. Students are an important part of the school community. At school sense of community (SOC) is defined as a student's feeling of being known by, accepted by, valued by, and having influence with their teachers and classmates (Schaps, Lewis & Watson, 1997). It is also described as feeling connected to, engaged to, belonging to, and committed to school. The quality of students' social relations with each other, with teachers and with administrators contributes to an enhanced school environment. The benefits of community building in schools depend on the school's efforts (Sheers, 2010). The main purpose of this study is to reveal the sense of community of the university students by making the Turkish adaptation of the 'Sense of Community' scale developed by Chavis, Lee and Acosta (2008). The study examined the university students' perception of the sense of community and it was determined that students' perceptions of the sense of community were at medium and higher levels. When the results of the analysis made according to the variable of the department are taken into account, it is observed that the students' opinions show significant differences in all dimensions. When the arithmetic averages related to the sense of community are examined, it is observed that the students of the department of psychological Counselling and guidance have the lowest scores. In this study, only the opinions of students studying at a single university were examined. It is thought that examination of other universities in the future studies could be useful.