Classroom Climate Survey

Collection Methods

Midway through the six week action research, I gave my students a classroom climate survey. The survey itself was much broader than the pre-survey. It asked questions relating to the classroom and material covered but also asked about how the students felt the teacher interacted with them. Since this survey dealt with culture and climate, it was a great point of reference as to changes being made at this point within the classroom. I did not want to repeat the pre-survey until the research period had concluded, but I also wanted broader feedback from the students.

The survey was divided into two parts. The first part was a modified Likert scale of strongly disagree to strongly agree. The second part was two open ended questions. It was administered in the same fashion as the pre-survey, online video iPads. I chose to use this as a midpoint data collection piece in order to collect feedback and information that I could use to modify my teaching and the room arrangement for the remainder of the research period. This survey was applicable to my students, because the students were able to use technology with which they were familiar. They were also able to express themselves anonymously and honestly. Each statement was personal so students could express their feelings.

The Survey

Section 1: Likert Scale

I have freedom in the classroom.
I have choices in what I learn.
My teacher cares about me.
My teacher listens to my ideas.
My teacher is a good teacher.
My teacher believes I can learn.
Other students are treated fairly by my teacher.
I am recognized for good work.
It is the teacher who decides what will be done in our class.
My teacher makes lessons interesting.
Activities in this class are clearly and carefully planned.
My teacher is always willing to answer my questions.
My teacher gives me feedback to help me learn.
My teacher asks questions that make me think.
The work I do in class makes me think.
Students seem to do the same type of activities every class.
Students in the classroom treat my teacher with respect.
Student behavior is under control in the classroom.
My classmates behave the way my teacher wants them to.
Students treat each other with respect in the classroom.

Section 2: Open Ended

What do you like about being in this class?
What do you wish was different?

Relevance

The classroom culture survey built off of the pre-survey to allow students to share their feelings about the class. The classroom culture survey intentionally focused on student attitudes to correspond with our building-wide improvement plan of engagement. It was also a major focus of our building for the accreditation process through AdvancED. The two specific standards were:

2.2 The learning culture promotes creativity, innovation, and collaborative problem-solving.

2.3 The learning culture develops learners' attitudes, beliefs, and skills needed for success.

These standards directly relate to the information gained from the survey as well as that of the pre and post survey. In order for students to learn and be problem solvers, they need to feel comfortable and safe in the learning environment. Comfortable seating and choice in arrangement aids in students’ ability to learn and be successful.

Data Analysis

The information received from the survey itself was extremely positive. Initially, I was worried that the students had not responded honestly and just responded with what they wanted me to hear. This thought process was disproven later in the survey by the honesty of the answers provided on both the open ended and select questions. Responses to some of the questions not included here were blunt and negative at times, ensuring that these students were being honest on all questions. If all free response questions were answered positively I would have been suspicious that students were just trying to please me. When I read the more negative comments on other questions, I was actually relieved to know that they were being honest.

Here is another example of a question in which students were honest, although the answer may not have been the most positive:

The responses to this question told me that slightly over half of the students in my classes felt that we did the same type of activities every day. This instructional format was slightly by design in order to stay within the most current research-based pedagogy of teaching a world language. The structure of my average lesson was very purposefully planned. Each class began with calendar talk which was our general warm up. It was followed by a vocabulary exercise, either review or presentation of new words. After that was normally a listening or reading exercise. This focused on input of the language. Next was an output exercise that focused on either writing or speaking. Finally the class would end with a formative assessment to check for understanding. Each of these activities have dozens of options; I mixed those up every day, but the structure stayed the same and thus students could feel that we do the same activities every day, because the structure is so similar. It reaffirmed that the students answered this question honestly, and thus I was willing to extrapolate that assumption with the other questions.

This question directly related to the pre-survey in that students could have interpreted “freedom” to be freedom of movement or to be freedom of ideas. Either way, 100% of the students agreed that they felt they had their definition of freedom in my class. This told me that what I implemented during the first half of the study had not caused students to feel restricted and that I could continue with what I was doing in order to maintain that freedom.

The Open Ended Questions

Most of the Likert questioning was more explicitly teacher and student centered, rather than environment centered, but the overarching feedback was based on classroom culture and thus still could be extrapolated to represent the environment. The open ended questions allowed students to express a wide range of opinions. In response to the first open ended question, some responses I would like to highlight are:

“I don’t feel stressed at all when I think about going to this class. It’s a nice and fun environment.”

“It’s laid back and it’s a fun way of learning so it sticks better.”

“It is a very fun classroom environment and puts me in a good mood.”

These three responses were selected, because they represent the majority sentiment of the class. The idea that the students are excited to be in class and that they are happy allows them to learn better. This is a common trend I saw in the open ended data. This data helped reaffirm to me that flexible seating was only aiding in creating a positive classroom environment and that it was definitely not hindering the environment. It also confirmed some of the importance of classroom culture that students had answered on the pre-survey.

A common trend in the, “what would you change?” question was that students would like to have more opportunities for notes and slowing down of overall pace within the class. Even though this data was not directly tied to the study, it allowed me to modify my teaching to help those individual students. I would allow more time to work on Quizlet work in class or do more frequent checks for comprehension and readiness to move on.

Triangulation with Pre-Survey

Overall the data provided by this survey reaffirmed the conclusions I drew from the pre-survey and allowed me to find specific areas that I could modify to help differentiate instruction in my class. It showed positive progress on classroom environment and culture that would have led me to expect positive answers on the post-survey as well. I anticipated growth in the number of students who prefered flexible seating as well as more positive comments made in regard to flexible seating and engagement.

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