DEVELOPMENT OF A SCHOOL—LEVEL ENVIRONMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

The School‐Level Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) is a new instrument measuring teachers' perceptions of the following eight psychosocial dimensions of the environment of primary or secondary schools: Affiliation, Student Supportiveness, Professional Interest, Achievement Orientation, Formalisation, Centralisation, Innovativeness and Resource Adequacy. Noteworthy features of the SLEQ are its consistence with the literature, coverage of Moos's three general categories for conceptualising all human environments, salience to practising teachers, specific relevance to schools, minimal overlap with classroom environment instruments, and economy. Administration of the SLEQ to two samples of 83 and 34 teachers, respectively, revealed that each seven‐item scale possessed satisfactory internal consistency and discriminant validity. Preliminary use of the SLEQ provided evidence of its usefulness in research into the effects of school‐level environment on classroom‐level environment and on teachers' pedagogical attitudes.