Measuring the Mood: Development of a Reliable School Ambiance Assessment Scale

Abstract

This study aimed to develop and validate a reliable instrument for assessing school ambiance, which encompasses the physical, social, emotional, and organizational dimensions of the school environment. School ambiance plays a vital role in shaping students’ learning experiences, academic performance, and overall well-being; however, limited tools exist that comprehensively capture these multifaceted aspects. To address this gap, a questionnaire was designed following an extensive review of the literature on school climate and environmental factors. A pool of statements was carefully generated to reflect the major domains of ambiance, ensuring both conceptual clarity and content validity. The psychometric properties of the instrument were evaluated through reliability and validity analyses. Internal consistency, assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, demonstrated excellent reliability (α = .89). To further examine construct validity, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed, which extracted four distinct factors: Physical Environment, Social Environment, Academic Environment, and Administrative Support. The first three factors contributed nearly equally to the overall variance, while Administrative Support accounted for a smaller portion (14.10%). Despite this, all four components were theoretically sound and statistically well-defined, indicating a coherent structure. Overall, the findings confirm that the developed tool provides a valid and reliable measure of school ambiance. The scale offers educators, administrators, and researchers a systematic means of evaluating the school environment, facilitating evidence-based strategies for improvement.