School Climate in Relation to Achievement Emotions of Learners: Bases for Action Plan

Abstract

This study adds to our knowledge of students’ emotional experiences during an important educational transition and shows that a supportive school climate was present but had a limited impact on students’ achievement emotions. Other personal, social, or contextual underlying factors might be more relevant to explain students’ affect and performance in school settings. The study aimed to determine and compare the achievement emotions of Grade 6 and Grade 7 learners at UB Loon Institute in their transition to junior high school, specifically class-related, learning-related and test-related emotions and to explore the perceived level of school climate in terms of teacher and student behaviors and its association with achievement emotions. The study adopted a quantitative descriptive-correlational research approach. The data were collected from 148 learners, 80(54.05%) males and 68(45.95%) females. Most of the participants were Grade 7 learners (86.49%). Grade 6 learners made up 13.51% of the sample. School atmosphere and accomplishment emotions were measured by standardized questionnaires on a 4-point Likert scale. Data were analyzed using weighted mean, Wilcoxon Rank Sum Test and Multiple Regression Analysis. The study found that the school climate was usually evaluated as “Often occurs” especially in Supportive Teacher Behavior (3.09) and Collegial Student Behavior (2.98). Learners “Disagreed” with negative class-related (2.09) and learning-related (2.20) emotions reflected minimal negative emotional experiences. They “Agreed” with test-related emotions (2.57) such as good feelings of pride and relief and negative responses of exam dread. Statistical analyses showed no significant variations in achievement feelings by grade level (p = .511) and gender (p = .420). In addition, no meaningful link was identified between school climate and achievement emotions (p = .837). The variation accounted for was only 2%. These findings imply that students’ feelings are affected by variables other than school atmosphere.