This study shows that whilst the emergence of
school climate as an educational issue of major importance
is being recognised in the more recent schooling
effects literature, the actual concept remains somewhat
elusive and vaguely defined. A severe lack of knowledge
and need for study into the area, particularly of primary
school climates, is also evident.
The actual concept of climate is thus discussed
and analysed and evidence in support of the need for its
assessment is presented. Past measures used for climate
assessment are then reviewed with the aim of selecting
an appropriate instrument to identify school climate
perceptions of primary school students in this study.
Here a new area of school climate information - the
quality of school life - was introduced. The Quality of School Life Questionnaire which enabled differentiation
between a number of climate dimensions, was selected as
being the most appropriate instrument for minor modification
and use in this study. The refined version titled
School Life was administered to 587 students from 23
classes in 12 A.C.T. primary schools.
Data was analysed to provide detailed information
concerning students' views of the positive and negative
aspects of their school climate. To determine the
validity of these results and to strengthen the study as
a whole students with very high/very low school climate
perceptions were then interviewed. This enabled more
detailed discussions of these students' perceptions of
school life. Also, it enabled examination of the
possibility of employing school counsellor intervention
techniques at both the school and personal levels aimed
at assisting such students in coping more adequately in
their school systems.
The results indicate that school climate assessment
can provide important information which could be utilized
by school counsellors. In this Study, such assessment
led to actual identification of the high/low quality
areas in school climates and led to identification with
reasonable accuracy of individual students not coping in
their existent climates.
Thus the possibility and the value of school
counsellors working towards 'individualizing' school
climates through either modifying the actual climate or
climate dimension/s to better match student needs, or
through employing intervention techniques aimed at helping
individual students not coping in their particular school
climates is examined and emphasized.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219105 |
| Date | January 1983 |
| Creators | Kosky, Kristine, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Education |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Kristine Kosky |
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