INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY: APPLIED BUSINESS AND EDUCATION RESEARCH

This research is intended to examine the extent of effectiveness of school climate and level of teachers’ commitment to the teaching profession. To attain this purpose, the researcher utilized descriptive-correlational research design to investigate the relationship between school climate and teachers’ commitment. The researcher composed a survey questionnaire which was subjected to validity and reliability tests and was administered to a convenient sample of a public junior high school teachers in the locale of the study. Findings reveal that the extent of effectiveness of school climate dimensions was highly effective, and teachers’ level of commitment was highly employed. The result served as the bases for the researcher to propose a supplementary support program to improve further the school climate and strengthen the level of teachers’ commitment, hence improving their schoolwork performance.


Introduction
School climate is a dominant factor in describing students' learning and achievement and teachers' commitment to the teaching profession. Perceptions on school climate have raised interesting questions about whether the extent of effectiveness of school climate can add value to teachers' commitment. Several studies have defined school climate as the social feature of a school with regards to the relationships among students and teachers and/or staff, learning and teaching priorities, values and norms, and shared approaches and practices (Maxwell et al., 2017). School climate is the aspect and character of school life that is grounded on the school life experiences of students, parents, and school personnel (National School Climate, 2022). The factors that shape school climate are on the focus of safety environment, teaching and learning, and relationships in the workplace. They were classified as physical, academic and psychosocial school climate dimensions. A sustainable and positive school climate is deemed one of the most im-IJMABER 1565 Volume 3 | Number 8 | August | 2022 portant factors that promotes students' academic and social development and teachers' commitment and performance towards work.
Studies also have claimed that teachers' commitment to the school is one of the various dimensions that they can develop, including commitment to the students' learning and academic achievement and commitment to their profession and professional development (Zacharo et al., 2018). Teachers' commitment to the school organization plays an important role in improving teacher performance. Mailool, et al. (2020) revealed that teachers who have strong commitment to the school are more likely to be productive at work in contrast to those who are not. Among the teachers' attitude that reflects their strong commitment to school are willingness to sacrifice for the school, a sense of responsibility in making the school better, and the loyalty to maintain the school's reputation in the community. In addition, Lankford (2018) reported that employing committed teachers has various benefits including increases achievement, declines teacher absenteeism, declines teacher conflict, and promotes innovative teaching. Furthermore, teacher commitment does not only focus on the individual goals but most importantly on the success of all students. In support, Huberman (1993) as cited in Khan (2020) mentioned that teachers' commitment is an important element of any educational institution's progress. Since teachers are discerning with the use of their efforts to achieve organizational goals, they tend to perform better, and they are more engaged in school activities which are manifestations of a motivated and committed teacher. Teachers who are committed efficiently perform their responsibilities consistent with their profession demands which results in a good teacher-student relationship (Khan, 2020). Teachers with high levels of commitment tend to work harder, display stronger relationships to their schools, and show more desire to perform the goals of teaching, as compared with teachers with low levels of commitment (Lawrence, 2021). Recent surveys have shown also that teachers' commitment affects the teachers' willingness to support necessary changes promoted in schools, teachers' organizational citizenship behavior, teachers' performance, and teachers' job satisfaction (Zacharo et al., 2018).
The conceptual framework of the study was based on Social Cognitive Theory which is focused on how individuals gain a behavior and their ability to sustain it combined with determining the social environment in which one exhibits the behavior (Bandura, 1986). This highlights the importance of the school environment that made an impact on teachers' commitment wherein there is an accomplishment of work brought about by the teachers' work ability in obedience to the competence, duties, good moral, and positive behavior, all of which affects the improvement of quality of education (Syahril and Hadiyanto, 2018). All of these boil down to the claim that better school climate means better teachers' commitment and performance. With all the aforementioned principles and discussions, the researcher was motivated to conduct an initial investigation in the locale of the study to determine the school climate dimensions and its relationship to teachers' level of commitment which served as the bases for a proposed supplementary support program. This supplementary program served as assistance for the teachers and in support for the school in improving school climate. This program is intended to help the entire school system and strengthen teachers' level of commitment.

Methods
The study employed a descriptive-correlational quantitative method. It was specifically used to explore the relationship between school climate and the teachers' level of commitment.
The sources of data in this study were 80 teacher-respondents from a public junior high school in the division of Quezon City, National Capital Region, Philippines, through a purposive sampling technique. The data gathering instrument used was a researcher-made survey instrument consisted of two distinct parts for the extent of effectiveness of three school climate dimensions for physical, academic and psychosocial and level of teachers' commitment. The instrument was subjected to adapted face and construct validation tests by four IJMABER 1566 Volume 3 | Number 8 | August | 2022 expert head teachers and reliability analysis using Cronbach alpha. The researcher initially asked permission from the school head prior to the conduct of the study. Upon approval, the respondents were requested to answer the survey questionnaire via digitalized survey form. The data gathered from the respondents were tallied and presented in tabular and textual forms and treated statistically. Weighted mean was utilized to measure the extent of effectiveness of the school climate and level of teachers' commitment while Spearman rank correlation was used to test the relationship between the extent of effectiveness of school climate and teachers' level of commitment. The results were the bases for conclusion and recommendation for a supplementary support program for the teacher-respondents.

Results and Discussion
Results that were gathered from the questionnaire are summarized and presented in the following tables:  Table 1 shows the summary of the effectiveness of the school climate. It can be gleaned from the result that academic climate has the highest mean of 3.50, followed by the psychosocial climate with a mean score of 3.43 and the last was on physical climate with a mean score of 3.25 which are all classified as highly effective. It appears that the overall weighted mean of 3.39 with standard deviation of 0.16 implicit that the school climate dimensions are perceived as highly effective. The respondents put high consideration on academic climate where teachers who are committed efficiently perform their responsibilities consistent with their profession demands which results in a good teacher-student relationship (Khan, 2020). In addition, Fried (2001) as cited in Khan (2020) supports the view that teachers' commitment to students' learning is one of the definite characteristics of teachers as there is a solid connection between teachers' commitment and students' achievement.  Table 2 is the summary of the teacher-respondents' level of commitment. Commitment to teaching profession got the highest mean score of 3.81. It was followed by the commitment to students' learning with a mean score of 3.62 and commitment to school IJMABER 1567 Volume 3 | Number 8 | August | 2022 organization with a mean of 3.60. Last is the commitment to life-long learning with a mean score of 3.46. All the indicators were interpreted with a descriptive value of highly committed. It shows that the overall weighted mean of 3.62 with standard deviation of 0.16 implies that the respondents have high regard on commitment to the teaching profession. This can be likened to the findings of Nurulaim and Suhaida (2013) as cited in Mustafa et al. (2020) stated that committed teachers to the teaching profession are deemed as the human capital at the frontline of the educational development of a nation which makes the teachers' commitment as a key factor in recognizing educational aspirations. Committed teachers also have a firm belief towards high school leaders and teachers who always ensure and prioritize their policies. Furthermore, teachers who have high commitment towards the school are willing to give beyond what is expected from them.  Table 3 shows the correlation between the extent of effectiveness of the school climate and level of teachers' commitment. It can be gleaned from the table that there is no significant relationship between these variables (r = 0.224, p = 0.422 > 0.05). Hence, the null hypothesis is accepted. There is no significant relationship between the extent of effectiveness of the school climate and teachers' level of commitment. This implies that school climate does not have significance with the level of teachers' commitment which means that teachers' commitment to the teaching profession is focused on making a positive impact on their students' learning despite whatever school climate condition they possess. The data in this research did not reflect and hold up prior studies that convey the relationship exists between overall school climate and teachers' commitment. Alternatively, this research study showed that there was no correlation to school climate and teacher' commitment. Lacks and Watson (2018) cited similar context to these findings. Whereas, none of these factors is aligned with the research presented that shows that a positive relationship does exist between school climate and teachers' commitment.

Conclusion and Recommendations
This study examined the extent of effectiveness of school climate and level of teachers' commitment in the perspective of the teaching personnel. The result suggests that the extent of effectiveness of school climate in three given dimensions were highly effective and the level of teachers' commitment as perceived by the respondents was highly committed. Furthermore, the findings did not manifest a correlation between the school climate and teachers' commitment. The result of this study may mean that school climate alone does not account for teachers' commitment and further research is recommended for the understanding of the relationship between school climate and teachers' commitment. However, a supplementary support program named Project STEP(School Climate and Teachers' Commitment Enhancement Program) was made to improve school climate dimensions and enhance teachers' level of commitment. This includes activities such as seminars and trainings, team building synergy, research festival programs, and restructuring school facilities through collaborative efforts of the entire school which is set to conduct during the in-service training schedule and brigade eskwela week.