Differences in the Climates of Different Types of Schools

When both an actual and a preferred form of a slightly reworded version of the Work Environment Scale was administered to a sample of 599 teachers in various types of school, the scales generally were received favourably by teachers and displayed good validity characteristics. Comparison of scores for four different types of school revealed that generally school environments were most favourable in primary schools and least favourable in high schools. In particular, primary schools could be differentiated easily in terms of their greater involvement, smaller work pressure, greater clarity of rules and procedures, greater innovation and greater physical comfort relative to high schools.