Ayako Ito

  Classroom climate, defined as the psychosocial characteristics of a classroom, is an important aspect of the learning environment.  Recently, classroom climate has been focused on in relation to the promotion of students’ mental health and in connection with special education, as well as in attempts to prevent bullying and violence.  In the present study, the Classroom Climate Inventory (CCI; Ito & Matsui, 2001, in Japanese) was revised to take into consideration recent changes in schools and social changes affecting children.  New data were obtained in 2013 from 227 classrooms in 24 junior high schools located in Tokyo, and also in the Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kinki, and Kyushu areas in Japan.  Differences in the scores on the CCI between the original scale and the new data were analyzed, and a new version of the CCI was developed by revising the CCI subscales with multilevel factor analysis. In addition, the criterion-related validity of the CCI was examined, and its practical usefulness illustrated through case examples of teacher consultations by comparing scores on the new and original CCI.  Moreover, methods of providing feedback to teachers based on the CCI results and the possibility of identifying more detailed CCI subscales were investigated.