Assessment of the Social-Emotional Climates Experienced by a Group of Seventh Graders as they Moved from Class to Class

Abstract

A TECHNIQUE' has been developed for assessing the socialemotional climate in classrooms through a categorization of the teacher's statements. The instrument called the Social-Emotional Climate Index comprises criteria whereby teacherstatements can be distributed among seven categories. The criteria for each category are as follows:Category I. Learner-supportive statements or questions. These are teacher-statements or questions that express agreement with ideas, actions or opinions of the learner, or that commend or reassure the learner. Agreement is frequently expressed by a monosyllabic response such as &dquo;Yes,&dquo; &dquo;Right,&dquo; &dquo;Uhuh,&dquo; and the like. Commendation or reassurance may be stated in terms of a) class-accepted criteria or goals, or b) the private goals and subjective criteria of the teacher. The dominant intent of these statements or questions is to praise, encourage or bolster the learner. Category 2. Acceptant or clarifying statements of questions. These are teacher-statements or questions which a) accept, i.e., evidence considerable understanding by the teacher of, or b) clarify, i.e., restate clearly and succinctly in the teacher's words, the ideational or the feeling content of the learner's statements. The dominant intent of these teacher-responses is to help the learner gain insight into his problem, i.e., define his &dquo;real&dquo; problem and its solution in more operational terms.

Validity of samples of classroom behavior for the measurement of "social-emotional climate".

“…One of their conclusions was that the teachers they observed exhibited marked variations in their verbal behavior on different occasions in addition to differing among each other in typical or average behavior. Further evidence of this variability is found in Withall's article (10). Although he indicated some consistency in the kind of atmosphere created by the same teacher over a period of time, an analysis of his data by the authors revealed marked variability on the part of some teachers.…”

“…A study by Anderson, Brewer, and Reed (2) revealed a persistence in behavior patterns of two teachers who were studied during two consecutive years with differeut classes each year. Withall (9,10) studied the psychological climate of the classroom by means of an analysis of teachers' verbal behavior. Although he did not study variability per se, he concluded that "... there appears to be some consistency in the kind of atmosphere the same teacher creates in her classroom over a period of time.…”

Some relationships between pupil behavior and certain teacher characteristics.

“…pil acts or behaviors (Mitzel, 1960;Ryans, 1957Ryans, , 1960. Some of us go on to postulate quantitative or functional relationships between kinds of teacher behavior and pupil behavior-assuming that more of a certain kind of teacher behavior will result in more effective pupil behavior-and proceed to gather data and evaluate the evidence (Anderson & Brewer, 1946;Christensen, 1960;Cogan, 1958;Gnagney, 1960;Jayne, 1945;Withall, 1952;and others). However, such functional relationships are not easy to demonstrate empirically, partly because of difficulties of observation and mensuration and, undoubtedly, partly because of the complex interactions among teacher and pupil characteristics (Ryans, 1956).…”

Institutional and cultural influences on child growth and behavior.

“…It would appear that children regard teachers as potent parent-surrogates in the socialization process. and ambivalent feelings (Withall,121); goal satisfactions, and the pain of continuous failures (Sandin,90); interesting, dull, and commonplace activities; congenial, hostile, and casual classmates. In view of the dynamic functioning of these and many other variables in school life, it would indeed be a rare child who could remain consistently indifferent to his school experiences.…”