Differentiation of Classroom Climate Among Home Economics Teachers

Abstract

The Student Estimate of Teacher Concern (SETC) has been used to describe an individual student's perception of the classroom climate as well as the overall classroom environment. This research determines the appropriateness of the SETC in both contexts. Analysis of variance based on student responses to 48 teachers, in 1 to 6 of their classrooms at grade levels 7 to 12, resulted in 22 items differentiating among teachers. Classroom climate scales were established by examina tion of both the between‐teachers and pooled within‐teacher correlation matrices.Two scales resulted from the between‐teachers matrix and four from the pooled within‐teacher matrix. Comparison of these results showed the two between‐teachers scales essentially duplicated two of the four scales from the within‐teacher analyses. These findings suggest that none of the scales of the SETC measure classroom dimensions that are a function of the teacher and that the scales are more appropriately used for assessing an individual's perception of climate. The study also provides a workable methodology by which an inventory to measure classroom climate dimen sions attributable to teachers could be developed.