Students, parents, teachers and non-teaching staff’s perceptions of School Climate in the Middle School.

Author(s):

Barbara Bocchi(presenting / submitting)Giulia Cavrini Liliana Dozza

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

14. Communities, Families and Schooling in Educational Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

14 SES 04 A, Policies and Actions to Promote School-Family-Community Links (Part 1)

Paper Session: to be continued in 14 SES 05 B

Time:

2014-09-03

09:00-10:30

Room:

B323 Sala de Aulas

Chair:

Rocío García Carrión

Contribution

The relationship between learning, the quality of the learning experience and psychological well-being of the students is a matter that should be considered as part of the problems related to raising the quality of education.
The learning process is, in fact, considered more and more a social path, characterized by relationships between people. The learning environment is a human environment: therefore, the different quality of the relationships mentioned above determines the effectiveness (or otherwise) of the whole process.
Pursuing a positive school climate in the educational relationship means, first and foremost, to worry that students live a good learning experience as a whole, helping them to identify and develop their personality, to discover the characteristics that make each person able to strengthen interests and attitudes, and to rebuild the true path of personal growth and development in life.

The National School Climate Council (2007) recommends that school climate and a positive and sustained school climate be defined in the following ways: “School climate is based on patterns of people’s experiences of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationship, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures.

A sustainable, positive school climate fosters youth development and learning necessary for a productive, contributive, and satisfying life in a democratic society. This climate includes norms, values, and expectations that support people feeling socially, emotionally and physically safe. People are engaged and respected. Students, families and educators work together to develop, live, and contribute to a shared school vision. Educators model and nurture an attitude that emphasizes the benefits of, and satisfaction from, learning. Each person contributes to the operations of the school as well as the care of the physical environment”.

Classroom dynamics are complex and similar to school climate in that they involve the relationships and interactions between teachers and students, among students, and the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviours of students and teachers within the classroom (Montague & Rinaldi, 2001).

The main aim of this research is to compare the results obtained in a population study directed at eliciting and correlating student, parent, teacher and non-teaching staff’s perceptions of school climate.

In particular, we will present some of the data collected in our survey concerning the middle schools.

Method

Univariate statistics were used to describe the sample and examine the distributions of variables of interest. Explorative Factor Analyses were utilized to explain the variables in terms of their common underlying dimensions (factors). In fact, Factor analysis is frequently used to develop questionnaires. It is statistical approach that can be used to analyse interrelationships among a large number of variables and to explain these variables in terms of their common underlying dimensions (factors). The statistical approach involves finding a way of condensing the information contained in a number of original variables into a smaller set of dimensions (factors) with a minimum loss of information. In order to determine the interrelationships among the questionnaire items, a Principal-Axis Factor Analysis was performed. The final scale was used for Confirmatory Factor Analysis that was done to assess its construct validity. This project is a study which focuses on Italian language schools in South Tyrol. The questionnaires were administered to all students, teachers, parents and non teaching staff. In Italy, there is no validated standardized instrument to measure school climate. Therefore, a questionnaire was developed in order to collect data in schools, to be used as part of a pilot project headed by the research group of Dozza, Cavrini and Chianese, in collaboration with the Italian School Intendancy of the Province of Bolzano, in northern Italy. 13,500 questionnaires were administered between January 2012 and April 2012 and 10,130 were collected. Our research aims at having a relevant impact on the school of the Bolzano province, giving data aggregated at the “school system” and individual data for each school, providing cause for reflection and allowing to develop improvement plans. In this work we will present the result obtained in the middle schools. This project is a population-study and it involves the Italian language school of the South Tyrol. The questionnaires was administered to all students, teachers, parents and staff. Data for the current study were collected from 667 parents, 772 students, 239 teachers, 106 staff and 19 public and private middle school. The specific goals of the present study was: to develop and validate a measure of school climate that could be used by parents, students, teachers and staff; to compare the perception of school climate by the different participants: parents, teachers, non-teaching staff and students; to develop an intervention plan to improve the school climate.

Expected Outcomes

667 parents have responded to the questionnaire, with a response rate of 74.3%. The parents of Middle students can seem to be more critical than those of Pre and Elementary schools. In fact, all the means of the scores are lower below 7.6. The relationship with teachers is better then the other relationship. Despite this, parents seem to be moderately satisfied of the average school attended by their sons (7.6). Also the Students indicated some problems in some dimensions. Teachers seem to be quite satisfied in particular of relationship with students (8.5) and staff (8.6). Overall satisfaction is discrete (7.6). There were not important and significant differences between the school levels. We believe that our research – of which we only present the results about the perception of the school climate by teachers and parents - is innovative for two reasons: 1. The same questionnaire - although duly modified in the formulation of some items - was been proposed to all “actors” of the "school system": teachers, students, parents, and staff. 2. It is the first time that a questionnaire on school climate is validated in Italy. Our research aims to have a relevant impact on the school of the Bolzano province, giving data aggregated at the “school system” and individual data for each school, for a reflection that allows developing improvement plans.

References

Brophy-Herb H., Lee E. R., Nievar A., Stollak G., (2007). Preschoolers’ social competence: Relations to family characteristics, teacher behaviors and classroom climate. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. Vol. 28, n. 2, pp. 134-138. Dauber S., Epstein J. L. (1993). Parents’ attitudes and practices of involvement in inner-city elementary and middle schools. In N. F. Chavkin, Families and schools in a pluralistic society. Albany: State University of New York Press. Freiberg, H. J. (1998). Measuring school climate: Let me count the ways. Educational Leadership, 56(1), 22-26. Freiberg, H. J. (Ed) (1999). School climate: Measuring, improving, and sustaining healthy learning environments. London: Falmer Press. Henderson A., Berla N. (1994). A new generation of evidence: The family is critical to student achievement. Columbia, MD: National Committee for Citizens in Education. Hickman C. W., Greenwood G. E. & Miller M. D. (1995). High school parent involvement: Relationship with achievement, grade level, SES, and gender. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 28, 125-134. Montague M., Rinaldi C. (2001). Classroom dynamics and children at risk: A follow-up. Learning Disability Quartely, 24, 75-83. Moos, R. H. (1979). Evaluating educational environments. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. National School Climate Council (2007). The School Climate Challenge: Narrowing the gap between school climate research and school climate policy, practice guidelines and teacher education policy. Retrieved from http://www.schoolclimate.org/climate/advocacy.php

Author Information

Barbara Bocchi (presenting / submitting)

Free University of Bozen

bolzano

Giulia Cavrini

Free University of Bozen, Italy

Liliana Dozza