Positive classroom climate through caring school community

Abstract

This study was designed to understand the influences that the social emotional learning program called Caring School Community had on a small elementary school’s classroom climate in Southeastern British Columbia, and to gain knowledge on how to further the impact of the program for following years. The program had four pillars that each classroom implemented at the beginning of the school year. These four pillars included, a morning circle, a closing circle, 30 minutes of social emotional learning each week, and participation in a cross-age buddy program. In this study classroom climate was defined as “the experiences that students have socially, emotionally, and academically within a classroom during their school day” (Thapa, Cohen, Guffey, & Higgins-D, 2013, p. 369). A mixed methods research approach was implemented, in order to receive anecdotal and numerical data from the classroom teachers. The findings from this research indicate that the use of the Caring School Community program has a positive influence on the teacher’s perception of their classroom’s climate. Most notably, the use of morning and closing circles had the greatest influences on student teacher relationships, and a student’s sense of belonging within their classroom.