Within the growing number of students with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream classrooms all over Europe, new challenges for teachers have arisen. Previous studies show that teachers struggle especially with the management of students’ non-compliant behaviour (e.g., Friedman 2006). As students behaviour is directly linked with their learning outcome (Breslau, Miller, Breslau, Bohnert, Lucia, & Schweitzer, 2009) this seems to be an important research topic. The aim of the present study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the newly developed Behaviour and Learning Climate (BCQ) scale from Närhi, Kiiski, Peitso and Savolainen (2015). Within this 22-item questionnaire students rate the behaviours and learning climates of their class on a 4-point Likert type scale. We translated the original BCQ into the other language (German) and then independently translated it back to Finnish to check that the meaning is the same. We analysed the reliability of the scale in two samples and compared the Finnish and German students. Data were collected from 701 German secondary and 6371 Finnish primary grade students. Preliminary results indicate that the BCQ represents a reliable instrument to capture behaviour and learning climate in both samples, the Finnish students (Cronbach’s Alpha =.87) and the German students (Cronbach’s Alpha =.82). For the Finnish sample, the empirical scale mean indicate that students fell a rather positive behaviour and learning climate in their classrooms (Finnish sample: M = 3.10, SD =0.38). The German students rated the behaviour and learning climate of their classes a bit less positive (M = 2.85, SD =0.43). The results of multilevel regression analyses (without predictors) showed significance variance at the class level for both sample, however, in the Finnish sample this was much higher (31%) compared to the German sample (17%). Further analysis (e.g. predictors of and implications of behaviour and learning climate) will be presented at the conference.

Breslau, J., Miller, E., Breslau, N., Bohnert, K., Lucia, & Schweitzer, J. (2009). The Impact of Early Behavior Disturbances on Academic Achievement in High School. Pediatrics, 123(6), 1472–1476. Friedman, I. (2006). Classroom management and teacher stress and burn-out. In C. M. Evertson & C. S. Weinstein (Eds.), Handbook of classroommanagement: Research, practice, and contemporary issues (pp. 925–944). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Närhi, V., Kiiski, T., Peitso, S., & Savolainen, H. (2015). Reducing disruptive behaviours and improving learning climates with class-wide positive behaviour support in middle schools. European Journal of Special Needs Education, 30(2), 274-285.