A Typology of Junior High and High School Classrooms

Abstract

Cluster analysis of nine dimensions of the social environments of 200 junior high and high school classrooms yielded five distinctive groups of classes: control oriented, innovation oriented, affiliation oriented, task oriented and competition oriented. The last three types were composed of structured and unstructured subtypes, and the competition oriented classes also had a subtype characterized by an emphasis on student affiliation. The clusters showed systematic differences in student satisfaction and mood, and in teacher satisfaction.