Testing Ecological Validity of the Croatian School Climate Questionnaire for Teachers from Different Educational Levels

Abstract

The aim of the research was to construct, validate and verify the ecological validity of the new measurement instrument, i.e., the Croatian School Climate Questionnaire – Teachers Version (HUŠK-N), which measures the general factor of the school climate from a teacher's perspective. Data were collected on three convenient samples of primary school teachers (N = 504) and on one sample of secondary school teachers (N = 196). In addition to the HUŠK-N questionnaire, teachers also completed questionnaires of several constructs relevant to teacher functioning. The results indicated that HUŠK-N has satisfactory psychometric characteristics, relatively high reliability (α > 0.77), a clear one-factor structure, and a normal distribution of responses. Correlation analysis revealed the expected direction of correlations of perception of school climate with selected constructs at all educational levels.