Using Children's Drawings to Examine Student Perspectives on Classroom Climate in a School-Within-a-School Elementary School

• In Event: Climate Matters: An Examination of Factors That Impact the Schooling Experience

Abstract

This study examines students perceptions of classroom climate at a SWAS (school-within-a-school) elementary school located in the Southeastern United States. Researchers utilized drawings to determine students’ perceptions of their classrooms, using an intentionally open-ended prompt that allowed students to focus on the aspects of their class they found most compelling. Classrooms with a climate that fostered community proved to be important to students and they made connections between community and active engagement in academic tasks. Students in the two programs perceived the nature of a community-focused classroom climate differently; in the gifted program, collaboration and group work were privileged, while in the neighborhood program expressed a likemindness and/or a notion of group connectedness.

Authors

• Mindy Spearman, Clemson University

• Jennie L. Farmer, Clemson University

• Meihua Qian, Clemson University

• Alison E Leonard, Clemson University

• Suzanne N. Rosenblith, Clemson University

• David M Johnstone, Greenville County School District