TY - JOUR
T1 - Construction and validation of a classroom climate scale
T2 - a mixed methods approach
AU - López, Verónica
AU - Torres-Vallejos, Javier
AU - Ascorra, Paula
AU - Villalobos-Parada, Boris
AU - Bilbao, Marian
AU - Valdés, René
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media B.V., part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2018/10/1
Y1 - 2018/10/1
N2 - Students’ perceptions of their classroom climate have been found to relate significantly to students’ learning outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to construct an instrument for assessing elementary-school students’ perceptions of classroom climate, based on a previous instrument that was being used in Chile by a public national school mental health program as a tool for aiding teachers in improving classroom management, but which showed poor psychometric properties. We used a six-staged mixed-methods approach to construct relevant items and dimensions based on this measure and by adapting previously-existing scales. Item development included participatory construction of items involving program officials, focus groups with students, and a pilot study. The final version was administered to a sample of 6813 elementary-school students. Results showed adequate reliability and construct validity, convergent validity with school climate, and divergent validity with peer victimisation. When consequential validity was explored through semi-structured interviews with program officials and school administrators, we found that the instrument was being used as a tool for helping teachers to improve their school climate and management skills. We discuss the importance of constructing instruments using a mixed-methods approach.
AB - Students’ perceptions of their classroom climate have been found to relate significantly to students’ learning outcomes. The purpose of the present study was to construct an instrument for assessing elementary-school students’ perceptions of classroom climate, based on a previous instrument that was being used in Chile by a public national school mental health program as a tool for aiding teachers in improving classroom management, but which showed poor psychometric properties. We used a six-staged mixed-methods approach to construct relevant items and dimensions based on this measure and by adapting previously-existing scales. Item development included participatory construction of items involving program officials, focus groups with students, and a pilot study. The final version was administered to a sample of 6813 elementary-school students. Results showed adequate reliability and construct validity, convergent validity with school climate, and divergent validity with peer victimisation. When consequential validity was explored through semi-structured interviews with program officials and school administrators, we found that the instrument was being used as a tool for helping teachers to improve their school climate and management skills. We discuss the importance of constructing instruments using a mixed-methods approach.
KW - Classroom climate
KW - Measurement
KW - Mixed methods
KW - Validity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85052830276&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s10984-018-9258-0
DO - 10.1007/s10984-018-9258-0
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85052830276
SN - 1387-1579
VL - 21
SP - 407
EP - 422
JO - Learning Environments Research
JF - Learning Environments Research
IS - 3
ER -