Student perception of school climate associated with faith maturity in private sectarian, private nonsectarian, and public high schools in Metro Manila

Abstract

This study examined school climate and faith maturity as perceived by high school students in Metro Manila, Philippines. Theory and prior research had suggested that a significant relationship might exist between school climate and student faith maturity.

The subjects were 360 students from public, private sectarian, and private nonsectarian high schools. The study analyzed the students' response to School Climate Survey and the Thayer Faith Maturity Scale.

In this study, the typical hiqh school student was between 13 to 16 years old, of Catholic religious affiliation, and had remained in the same school be between three to four years.

The major conclusions of this study were as follows: (a) There are significant positive relationships between all measured dimensions of school climate and faith maturity. The strongest correlations were in the case of student academic orientation, teacher-student reiationships, student activities, and guidance, (b) The students perceive their school climate to be generally positive and their level of faith maturity to be quite high; (c) The students perceive the least positive aspects of the school climate to be the discipline orientation in the classroom and security and maintenance in the school; (d) There are significant faith maturity differences by gender and religious affiliation; (e) There are significant differences in students' perceptions of school climate by gender and number of years attended the present school; (f) Students attending private nonsectarian schools have significantly higher faith maturity and more positive perceptions of school climate than their counterparts attending public school; and (g) The best predictive model of faith maturity (r2 =.35) was comprised of the SCS subscales "Student Academic Orientaion," "Teacher- Student Relationship," "Student Activities," and "Guidance," as well as the type of school and student gender.

Recommendations include teacher and student involvement in the enrichment of the school climate, training of teachers in the area of moral values, introduction of option in spiritual activities, and strengthening the counselor services including trained personnel. In addition, public high school are recommended to stimulate fund-raising in order to take care of security and maintenance. Finally, male students are to be given special attention through appropriate models to enrich their faith development.