Children with externalizing behavior problems are likely to show poor school achievements, problems in social interactions with teachers and peers and an elevated school-related stress. Though class climate is a meaningful variable to explain school achievements and aspects of emotional well-being, there are hardly any studies that consider class…

There has been an increased interest among researchers, policymakers, and educators in climate as an indicator of the health and functioning of a school. Climate is a complex, multidimensional construct that can be examined at the school, classroom, and individual levels. There are currently few open-access, brief measures of classroom climate,…

Noise, although ubiquitous, is seldom considered as a factor that may impede learning. In South Africa, most learners are multilingual and learn in English, which is their second language. Most noise studies have been conducted in the Global North, where the school context differs from the Global South. In this article, using questions selected…

Student characteristics, their attitude to school and classroom climate can influence teacher-student relationships and adjustment to school. Poor early school experiences are associated with school avoidance, disruptive behaviour, teacher conflict, and suspension and exclusion. The focus, however, remains on the behaviour of individual children,…

Beginning with the 2015-2016 school year, the West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) partnered with the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) and Marshall University to conduct a five-year study of the quality of the West Virginia Universal Pre-K (WV Pre-K) program. The study was designed to examine the effectiveness of the…

Background: Excessive student anxiety is a common problem that severely impairs short- and long-term academic functioning and increases teacher burden. Reducing student anxiety has been associated with improvement in educational functioning. Because anxiety manifests daily in the classroom, teachers are in an ideal position to identify and help…

Children's emotional and behavioural difficulties are the result of multiple individual, social and contextual factors working in concert. The current paper proposes a theoretical framework for interpreting students' emotional and behavioural difficulties in classrooms, by taking into consideration teacher-student interactions, students' social…