Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire
This article describes the development and validation of a six-scale survey to assess school climate in terms of students’ perceptions of the degree to which they feel welcome and connected, together with a scale to assess students’ perceptions of bullying. The development of each survey involved a...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Sage Publications
2013
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34095 |
| _version_ | 1848754129578491904 |
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| author | Aldridge, Jill Ala'i, Kate |
| author_facet | Aldridge, Jill Ala'i, Kate |
| author_sort | Aldridge, Jill |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | This article describes the development and validation of a six-scale survey to assess school climate in terms of students’ perceptions of the degree to which they feel welcome and connected, together with a scale to assess students’ perceptions of bullying. The development of each survey involved a multi-stage approach, including: 1) an extensive review of research related to school climate to identify components that can be considered important for effective schools made up of diverse students; 2) elucidating the scales identified in step one; and 3) writing individual items within the scales. Items from previously validated questionnaires were examined and, if appropriate, adapted. We used Trochim and Donnelly’s (2006) framework for construct validity to guide the validation of the new questionnaire. When the questionnaire was administered to a sample of 4067 high school students from eight schools, various statistical analyses ensured the questionnaire’s discriminant, convergent, concurrent and predictive validity. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:35:30Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-34095 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T08:35:30Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Sage Publications |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-340952017-09-13T15:07:51Z Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire Aldridge, Jill Ala'i, Kate This article describes the development and validation of a six-scale survey to assess school climate in terms of students’ perceptions of the degree to which they feel welcome and connected, together with a scale to assess students’ perceptions of bullying. The development of each survey involved a multi-stage approach, including: 1) an extensive review of research related to school climate to identify components that can be considered important for effective schools made up of diverse students; 2) elucidating the scales identified in step one; and 3) writing individual items within the scales. Items from previously validated questionnaires were examined and, if appropriate, adapted. We used Trochim and Donnelly’s (2006) framework for construct validity to guide the validation of the new questionnaire. When the questionnaire was administered to a sample of 4067 high school students from eight schools, various statistical analyses ensured the questionnaire’s discriminant, convergent, concurrent and predictive validity. 2013 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34095 10.1177/1365480212473680 Sage Publications restricted |
| spellingShingle | Aldridge, Jill Ala'i, Kate Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title | Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title_full | Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title_fullStr | Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title_full_unstemmed | Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title_short | Assessing Students' Views of School Climate: Developing and Validating the What's Happening In This Class (WHITS) Questionnaire |
| title_sort | assessing students' views of school climate: developing and validating the what's happening in this class (whits) questionnaire |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/34095 |