The aim of this study is to examine comparatively the characteristics which a qualified student is to possess according to the perceptions of teachers and students. To this end, a preliminary group made up of 10 teachers and 20 students were asked about the characteristics of a qualified student and the content analysis was performed on the responses given. 10 characteristics which stand out were selected by the results of the content analysis and the characteristics of a qualified student in the literature. The population of the study is the students who attend secondary schools and the teachers who serve at secondary schools. For the purpose of representing this population, a total of 1520 students, 748 of whom were male and 772 of whom were female attending public schools in the center of a province in the Middle Anatolian Region and a total of 174 teachers, 64 of whom were male and 110 of whom were female serving at these schools were accessed. Of the scaling approaches based on judge decisions, the scaling method of rank-order judgments was used in the analysis of the data. As a result of the analysis, while it was established that the first three most important characteristics which a qualified student is to possess were respectively “respectful, diligent and expressing oneself” according to the students, the ranking of these characteristics was found to be “respectful, expressing oneself and helpful” according to the teachers. It was found that the characteristics which have the least importance were respectively “thinking critically, versatile and being open to innovations” according to the students and that they were respectively ranked as “diligent, versatile and being open to innovations” by the teachers. Also, whether the teachers’ and the students’ ranking of these characteristics differ by gender was examined. The data obtained were discussed in the light of the literature and several suggestions were made for teachers, researchers and policy makers.

Middle school students, teachers, 21st century skills, values, scaling.