Overview of School Atmosphere and Psychological Well-Being of School Students

1. INTRODUCTION

A special time marked by many changes is puberty. With increased expectations and obligations, teenagers face more traumatic life events. Problems faced and addressed by parents and teachers during childhood students to a large degree. Parents and teachers now have less support and demand more at this point than they did earlier. Excessive strain on their psychological well-being from parents, teachers and the school atmosphere has a negative effect. The adolescent is going through a challenging phase of adjustment; they begin with puberty and end with the acquisition of full physical growth, intellectual behavioral ability and mature emotional regulation or behavior. The three phases of personality, physical, mental and emotional, do not simultaneously mature, nor does a person necessarily at the same time attain adult stature in all of them. Adolescents can develop physically but, as a child or as immature adolescents, continue to respond to life situations at the mental or emotional level. Parents and teachers all too often neglect this reality. Since the boy has the body of a man or the physical development of a girl is rapidly approaching that of natural femininity, it is easy to conclude that teenagers already have the ability to think in adult terms or to regulate and direct their inner impulses and drives in agreed adult fashion. It is therefore a great responsibility for parents as well as teachers to understand this development phenomenon during this time, since the role of the teacher often includes parenting functions at school. They should help students learn unique skills, make them aware of their various skills and talents, and enable them to grow.

2. SCHOOL:

The school is a structured organization designed to provide children with knowledge and skills. There is a need to become active members of society in young adulthood. Children in the developing world spend much of their time in classrooms, around 14,000 hours on average before they graduate from high school. Schools play an important role in the growth of children, influencing their ability to learn and ways of remembering, thinking, problem-solving skills, and comprehension of social morality. How do schools have such a strong influence? Research looking at schools as a diverse social structure offers valuable insights: class, number of students in the class, educational philosophies, transfer from one level of school to another, teacher-student relationships and grouping practices. All schools seem to have similar physical plans: each has a classroom, hallways, a playground, and a lunchroom. But in - class and in the school as a whole, they differ in the number of students they serve.

2.1 SCHOOL ATMOSPHERE:

The atmosphere of a school is an environment for learning. This includes the expectations people

workers and students want to spend a large part of their time; it is a pleasant place to be. Howard, Brainard, and Howell (1987). "School Environment" has been defined in various respects. Dave (1963) describes the school setting as “the conditions, processes and psychological stimuli which affect the educational achievement of the child”. It refers to forces in the environment of the learner which may be a part of the school or college environment, the home environment or the environment of various other social organizations. It consists of the school environment, as well as the teacher's approach to teaching, according to Hunt and Sullivan (1974). They consider practices as characteristics of the teaching system, and institutional programmers as well as the school setting are characteristics of the educational environment. This division, however, seems to be unnecessary. Hall(1970) included the dimensions of interaction facilities, ability to alter, autonomy of the student, and input on students, contribution of the teacher and consideration for tasks. Perkin (1951) concludes that teacher-pupil relationship quality in the class is described in terms of certain global characteristics as environments. Six characteristics were included in Mishra (1986), viz. In the inventory of the school environment, imaginative stimulation, cognitive motivation, permissiveness, power, acceptance and refusal. School days are considered the most significant because it is a school that eventually grooms a child to become a full human being.

1. Creative Stimulation: It refers to “teacher‟s activities to provide conditions and opportunities to stimulate creative thinking”. 2. Cognitive Encouragement: It means the efforts of teachers to promote the student's 3. Permissiveness: It indicates “a school climate in which students are provided opportunities to express their views freely and ac according to their desires with no interruption from teachers.” 4. Acceptance: It implies “a measure of teachers‟ unconditional love, recognizing that students have the right to express feelings to uniqueness and to be autonomous individual. The teachers accept the feelings of students in a non- threatening manner.” 5. Rejection: It implies “a school climate in which teachers do not accord recognition to students rights to deviate, act freely be autonomous persons. 6. Control: It indicates “autocratic atmosphere of the school in which several restrictions are imposed on students to discipline them.

It has been found that the school environment coincides with many areas of learning and growth for students. In contrast, the relationship of the community to each of these dimensions of change is considered, based on results from young adolescent research (Brand et al., 2003). In large-scale studies of students at elementary and high school levels, the dimensions of the school setting discussed below were also found to be correlated with student learning and adaptation. It is most important to examine the variation in the academic motivation of students, as well as in their marks on standardized achievement tests, in order to evaluate the impact of the school environment on the learning of students. Merits for academic encouragement attention since the goals, ambitions and sense of self-efficacy of students affect their long-term school adaptation as well as decisions about the pursuit of advanced training and education. Students receive better grades on standardized exams for reading and mathematics in schools with higher levels of student dedication to achievement. Moreover, several dimensions have been found to be correlated with the academic motivation of students. In schools with higher school average levels of teacher support, structure, positive peer relationships, and educational creativity, greater teacher expectations, academic goals, and academic effectiveness have been found. In schools where students were rated as having less safety concerns, students showed higher expectations of themselves and teachers, academic goals, and experiences were correlated with better grades and teacher expectations, while higher student self-expectations and academic ambitions were consistently associated with higher mean levels of support for cultural pluralism. There are several studies that indicate that the school atmosphere is also a tangible quality with consequences for student learning and growth (Haynes, Emmons, Ben- Avie, & Comer, 1996).The ingredients of a healthy, supportive school climate include: • Motivation for achievement: Students believe they can learn and want to learn at school. • Collaborative decision-making: the participation of parents, students and staff in the school's decision-making. • Equity and equity: each student is treated equally in the school irrespective of ethnicity, gender, and disability. • General school environment: All interactions and beliefs and respect have a positive quality in the school community. • Order and discipline: appropriate behavior shown in the school setting by the students. • Parent participation: the frequent participation of parents in school activities. Relationship with the school community: Supportive and involved community. • Dedication to student learning: students who are motivated to learn from the activities of teachers. • Staff expectations: Students will succeed in school and the school staff will expect them in life. • Leadership: The principal effectively guides and provides the direction to the school to create a positive climate and to achieve the long-term and short-term goal of the school. • School building: The school building is the school's physical appearance, which reflects respect for the community and the school. • Sharing of resources: Each student has an equal opportunity at school. • Caring and sensitivity: For the students, parents, and school staff, the school principal shows consideration. • Student-teacher relationship: There is a high level of care, respect and trust in the school between students and teachers.

2.5 OTHER IMPORTANCE OF A POSITIVE SCHOOL ENVIRONMENT:

An integral component of an effective school is a positive school environment. The school environment is consistently recognized as a variable that characterizes effective schools and is positively associated with academic achievement. Eight variables that characterize successful schools include: leadership, school environment, relationship between teacher and student, teaching curriculum, resources and finance, physical environment, evaluation, and parent/community. It has been shown that the nature of the school setting has a strong influence on the way students learn, develop and learn. The association of the school climate with improved student results has been documented in many studies. For instance, when the school environment is positive, it is more likely that the student will have greater achievement, more positive self-conception, improved behavior, and higher aspirations. In some cases, there may be a more indirect impact on the school climate, such as the promotion of a positive sense of belonging, participation in school assignments, activities and attendance. The school environment is an alterable variable that can impact different results; given the many unalterable factors associated with the risk of school failure, the results of a positive school environment are particularly encouraging. Although educators cannot change the socio-economic status, predisposition to mental illness, or level of ability of a student, change in the learning environment can improve the opportunity for success of a student and the general way to accept failures positively. A preventive, rather than reactive or remedial, approach is to improve the school environment. A positive school setting is a pre-required condition that facilitates a successful experience of work or learning. When high expectations are in place, relationships between employees and students are organized and characterized, and reciprocal communication exchanges with parents take place. There is a high probability that the performance and behavior of students will improve. Suspension rates are lower in schools with a positive school climate, attendance rates are higher, and students and parents have higher satisfaction levels.

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Research Scholar, Department of Psychology, Sri Satya Sai University of Technology & Medical Sciences, Sehore, M.P.