1) Dr Spiteri discusses nine dimensions that influence school climate. What are they, and how do these relate to the KIPP schools he mentions earlier?
The school climate is the quality and character of school life. As seen in the Maltese environment there seems to be a correlation between the school climate and the performance of students, with better environment resulting in higher grades. The removal of the junior lyceum exams seems to be motivated to try and establish all governmental schools to try and have a similar school climate.
The 9 dimensions as discussed in the video are:
- Clarity: The students should know what is being expected of them
- Fairness: Every student expects to be treated equally
- Environment: This is the place where students will spend most of their times, therefore this will need to be clean and comfortable.
- Interest: A student should be motivated when they go to school.
- Order: A nurturing environment for students to grow.
- Participation: students should be encouraged to participate in class.
- Standards: There should be a high expectation for all students.
- Safety: When at school, students have the right to feel safe.
- Support: A student should know that at school there is a support system in place for whatever is necessary, especially with regards to encouragement and guidance.
These 9 dimensions are crucial in KIPP schools, which are a set of American schools that offer free education to students who come from poorer backgrounds. In fact, 95% of students come from Afro-American or Hispanic families. These schools provide a climate for students to be able to get the grades to go to college, with the whole system being set up to provide the perfect environment for these students to succeed.
2) Prof. Darmanin discusses five key factors that contribute to a positive learning environment and allow secondary school students to learn, and learn well. What are these, and how are they related to the dimensions of school climate discussed earlier by Dr. Spiteri?
Professor Darmanin starts her vidcast emphasising that students want to learn. This is very important, cos when the students are willing then it will be the students themselves who demand that they are thought in a positive manner.
The five key factors mentioned by Prof Darmanin are:
- Teacher order and discipline: Students want to be in an environment where they are allowed to learn.
- Work should be demanding and salient: The work done should be challenging and should make students think about what they are doing.
- Lessons should have a good pace: Students want to learn something new all the time, and it is important not to spend too much time saying the same thing.
- Students do not want to be bored: A bored student is a student who is not loving the lesson and therefore a student who is not learning.
- Subjects should be horizontally connected: whatever a student is learning should be seen and understood in a wider context and not just for that one particular subject.
In fact, in other terms, it could be said that students want to have a classroom climate where they can learn. These seem to be extensions of what Dr Spiteri said in his vidcast where he mentioned a number of different dimensions that affect the school climate. If the school climate is not good and does not nurture learning than it would be very difficult to have a positive learning outcome, even if all the factors mentioned by Prof Darmanin are in place.