Author: Rosmawati Abdul Maing
Abdul Maing, Rosmawati, 2017 Classroom Climate and Its Impact on Students’ Outcomes in Maros Regency Junior High Schools in Indonesia, Flinders University, School of Education
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This study about classroom climate in the context of Maros, Indonesia aimed to examine the relationship between classroom climate and prosocial behaviour, learning engagement, and academic achievement and to explore teaching practices in Maros Regency junior high schools that influence classroom climate. Rural and urban junior high school students and their teachers participated in the study. A further aim of research was to develop a model to depict influences on classroom climate and its impact on prosocial behaviour, learning engagement, and academic achievement.
The ClassMaps Survey (CMS), a researcher-designed Teacher Rating Form (TRF), and interviews were used to gather the data. Seven hundred and four junior high school students participated in the survey and 24 class-teachers from 12 junior high schools completed a Teacher Rating Form and participated in individual semi structured interviews. The questionnaire (CMS) and Teacher-Rating Form data were analysed quantitatively using SPSS version 20 and Hierarchical Linear Modelling version 7 (HLM7). The data collected from teacher interviews were analysed using NVivo version 10. Additional analysis was undertaken of the two highest and lowest classes based on their classroom climate scores to explore students’ classroom climate and teachers’ teaching practices in greater depth.
To determine the relevance of classroom climate constructs in the Indonesian context, the ClassMaps Survey (CMS) was subject to statistical analyses. Principal Components Factor Analysis (with Promax rotation) supported the 8-component structure of the CMS questionnaire. The internal reliability of each subscale was also measured and produced acceptable to strong Cronbach’s alphas ranging between .60 and .85 indicating that the ClassMaps Survey was an appropriate measurement to examine students’ classroom climate in an Indonesian context.
The HLM analyses indicated that students’ perceptions of their classroom climate were significantly and positively associated with their academic achievement and prosocial behaviour but no significant direct effects on learning engagement were found. Importantly, student-teacher relationships were related to all three outcomes. Other variables that contributed to the three outcomes were also identified. In relation to students’ academic achievement variables included learning engagement, year level, streamed classes, the ratio of females to males in the classroom, teachers’ teaching experiences, and prosocial behaviour. With regard to learning engagement, the contributing variables were student-peer relationships, academic achievement, prosocial behaviour, year level, and the ratio of females to males in the classroom. The variables that influenced prosocial behaviour were gender, academic achievement, learning engagement, and student-peer relationships.
Qualitative analysis revealed that two main teaching practices influenced classroom climate namely student-teacher relationships and behaviour management. Five further domains indicative of teaching practices that contributed to a positive classroom climate were positive school-home relationships, teachers’ teaching pedagogies, and positive teacher assumptions about student intelligence and capabilities, peer friendships, and behavioural self-control. The implication of these qualitative and quantitative findings for both theory and practice are discussed.
Keywords: classroom climate, Indonesian junior high schools, students' outcomes, relationships, prosocial behaviour, learning engagement, HLM analysis, teachers' teaching practices, classroom management
Subject: Education thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2017
School: School of Education
Supervisor: DR. PAM BARTHOLOMAEUS