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  • 1.  Negative climate

    Posted 10-13-2021 12:00
    Good Morning, 

    When observing the negative climate do we just look at the teacher and not the child? 
    Also when the child have negative behavior and it affect the other children will the negative score go up or stay low.


    Ms. Howard

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    Ponice Howard
    Grambling LA
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  • 2.  RE: Negative climate

    Posted 10-14-2021 10:40
    It is mostly how the teacher reacts to the children's negativity.  Is the teacher also demonstrating negative climate or do they interact with the child having the negative behavior and try to work it out (which would be captured under teacher sensitivity or behavior management depending on the situation)?  If the teacher responds appropriately and addresses the incident, the score should remain low (again, that interaction would be reflected in a different dimension).  However, if the children are following the teacher's lead promoting negative climate, then it would go up.

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    Kristen Sharp
    Milford OH
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Negative climate

    Posted 10-14-2021 10:52
    When negative behavior affects your class it is sometimes best to have the child step away from the group just to get their souls together whether it be playing on with blocks or reading a book but usually once you intervene in the child's behavior the classroom will begin to come back to normal and if you're in a negative climate and a teacher has a negative attitude I usually tell teachers to step outside or get somebody to step in their classroom so they can take a 5-minute breathing to get themselves together and then come back.




    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Negative climate

    Posted 10-14-2021 16:47
    Hi @Ponice Howard,

    When observing Negative Climate, I would encourage you to think about the climate in the classroom as a whole. A great way to do it is by referring back to the definition, which for Negative Climate is"Reflects the overall level of expressed negativity in the classroom; the frequency, the quality, and the intensity of teacher and peer negativity are key to this scale."​

    So overall, you do want to take into account not only the Teacher's expressed negativity, but also the expressed negativity of other adults in the classroom, as well as the peer negativity with the children. If there is peer-peer negativity, this would still be captured here. If the actions of the child you're asking about are affecting the other children and the level of expressed negativity is increasing the score would go up since this dimension is scaled in the opposite direction of the others. 

    I hope this is helpful!

    Best,
    Allison

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    Allison Bloomfield
    Charlottesville VA
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Negative climate

    Posted 10-15-2021 10:19
    Goodmorning,

    Thanks for the clarification to my question. Also can you have a high positive score and a high negative score in an observation setting? I want to make sure I understand the difference and score the climates correctly.

    Thanks
    Ponice Devine Howard, Director
    Heavenly Devine Early Learning Center
    301 Plum St.
    P.O. Box 145
    Bernice, LA 71222
    (318) 478-6024



    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Negative climate

    Posted 10-15-2021 12:16
    Edited by Allison Bloomfield 10-15-2021 12:24
      |   view attached
    Hi @Ponice Howard,

    Speaking as an observer, but not a CLASS expert, ​I can't think of a time that this would be possible. Just because of the indicators and behavioral markers for Positive Climate in comparison to Negative Climate, they tend to cancel one another out. For instance, if you are seeing a Mid-range level amount of Sarcasm or Disrespect in the classroom for Negative Climate, you wouldn't be seeing a high range of Respect in Positive Climate. I would encourage you to read through the descriptive pages of your manual to see what descriptions fit the classroom you're observing more than anything. The descriptive pages provide a lot of detail in regards to each indicator that can help you to determine if they are high, mid, or low, and then determine the overall score for each dimension. I've attached the NICE coding process here for your reference in case that helps as you're determining your scores. Ideally, a classroom would be scoring high in the Positive Climate dimension, but low in the Negative Climate dimension. The Negative Climate Dimension is the only dimension a teacher would want a low score in. I really hope this helps answer your question, thank you so much!

    Best,
    Allison

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    Allison Bloomfield
    Charlottesville VA
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    NICE Coding Process.pdf   510 KB 1 version
    Original Message


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