Attitutor Classroom Climate Formative Assessment

User’s Guide
PROTOTYPE
Welcome!

Attitutor Classroom Climate is a tool for improving your students’ classroom experience.
Based on the feedback you get from this tool you will be able to make adjustments to your
classroom management practices within days and potentially see results within weeks. As a
professional you are invited to think of it as an essential tool. Every true professional has
essential tools: A doctor has a stethoscope, a dentist has dental picks, a lawyer has a library,
and teachers now have Attitutor Classroom Climate formative assessments. This tool enables
a type of classroom work that will be highly beneficial to all the learners in your classroom but
will not make up for any instructional expertise that you lack. Working on classroom climate
will a ect academic performance only indirectly. However, it is equally true that all the
instructional expertise in the world cannot make up for the problems of student motivation
and engagement that are the focus of the Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool.

The Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool is based on a much more precise scientific model than
almost all other climate measures and is designed for practical day-to-day use in classrooms.
Stale information collected only rarely is useless for day-to-day management. The
“summative” climate measures that are o ered by Youth Truth, Panorama, Hope Survey, and
other companies, are used only annually or bi-annually and take weeks to get results back to
teachers. These will provide third-party validation of what you will accomplish by using
Attitutor Classroom Climate.

Attitutor Classroom Climate is o ered on a freemium basis with a couple of options for more
support. There is a low monthly cost associated with the “free” version because the Plickers
platform is required, although if you have access to a di erent quiz system that can be
adapted to give answers anonymously then you can forgo that cost, too. The paid options give
you access to coaches who can help you get the most out of using the Attitutor Classroom
Climate Tool by applying psychological science.

Please help refine this prototype so that it can become a standard tool for all teachers, rather
than a rare opportunity for a lucky few early adopters, like you. Even if you do not opt into the
additional support that would enable us to be in regular contact, you can send me your
thoughts and suggestions anytime by email (attitutor@gmail.com) or through my web site,
HolisticEquity.org/contact.

Once this prototype is su iciently developed I will train and certify teachers like you to
become the support system for other teachers. A portion of the support fees will then be
directed to certified trainers. Eventually, I will also create a version for principals to assess the
climate of their school sta and faculty.

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 Attitutor Freemium Plan- Overview of the steps and necessary materials:

Question Source - Plickers Pro Account ~$10/month (district & school accounts avail.)
Question Asking - Digital Classroom Display or Printed Question Sets
Answer Giving - Anonymized Plickers Cards (print & cut)
Answer Gathering - Smart Phone w/ Plickers app
Answer Processing - Spreadsheet Program (Numbers / Excel)

Estimated preparation time: 2 hours

Estimated classroom implementation time: 30 minutes (more the first time for training)
Estimated processing time: 2 hours
Estimated long-term e ects: More joy & more genius in your classroom

Attitutor “Free” Option:

Plickers Pro Account ~$10/month
Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool Kit
Attitutor Classroom Climate User’s Guide
An Attitutor Guide to Basic Educational Hygiene
Plus other files

Group Coaching Option ($10/mo.)

One-to-many coaching sessions 2x per month
Advanced Training: Changing Your Intuitions via Science:
Sample of famous, but incorrect, ideas about motivation:
“Engagement” by Schlechty & Berry - Goal context matters
“Behaviorism” & Motivation - Purposes matter
“Hierarchy” of Needs - Interdependent combinatorial units
(like DNA) no hierarchy
Deeper vs. Shallower Learning:
Structures (social & instructional) AND
Quality of experience
DLA - Attitutor All-in-One Handout & Education Causality Presentation

1-on-1 Coaching Option ($100/mo.) Request link a er signing up for Group Coaching
Access to all the Group Coaching benefits
Two hours of one-on-one coaching with an Attitutor certified coach each month

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 Basic Training Contents

Vanity vs. Actionable Metrics … 3 of 10
Causal Model, in brief … 4 of 10
Why Anonymize? Self-Fulfilling Prophesies & Expectation E ects … 4 of 10
How to use the Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool … 5 of 10
Principles of Action & Where to find the science … 9 of 10
Development Notes … 9 of 10

Vanity vs. Actionable Metrics

In the world of start-up entrepreneurship there is a useful distinction between business
metrics that are actionable as opposed to those that merely feed the vanity of leaders. Most
business start-ups have the problem of limited cash, known as capital, that will eventually run
out. If the leaders don’t get enough incoming cash flow from selling their products or services
(or generate more capital from investors and bank loans) their business fails. If the leaders pay
too much attention to metrics that make them feel good but do not result in more cash flow,
they are on a reliable path to business failure.

The poster child of a vanity metric is the hit counter on web sites from the 1990’s. The leader
of a web site business can feel great about racking up tons of hits, but hits do not produce
sales. That is why today Google has a complex set of metrics in their Analytics package for site
management that goes into not only how many people visit a given site, but many other
details about what they did while they were there. All that information is made available by
Google, but it is up to the leaders of each web site business to figure out which bits of
information are the ones that are actionable and will lead to the all-important cash flow that
they need to survive.

Let’s bring this around to education; I was at the ASCD conference in Chicago asking around
about climate measures. One principal that I was talking to brought out her phone and
showed me all the di erent graphs of the climate of her school on the Panorama app. It was
really impressive. I noticed that some of them did not appear to be very positive, so I asked
her what she will do to change the pattern. She shrugged and admitted that she did not know
what to do to change them. It appears that Panorama had given her a beautiful set of vanity
metrics, interesting but not useful.

The Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool is designed to give educators actionable climate data.
The science behind it is Self-Determination Theory which is the best explanation of
motivation and engagement available today with over 40 years of solid empirical evidence to
support it (see We Know This Much is (Meta-Analytically) True: A Meta-Review of Meta-Analytic
Findings Evaluating Self-Determination Theory by Ryan, Duineveld, DiDomenico, etal., 2023
DOI: 10.31234/osf.io/gk5cy).

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 Causal Model, in brief

The science of Self-Determination Theory (SDT) in its simplest form implies that there is a
causal model that can help us discern shallower from deeper learning. The model proceeds
from the existence of a psycho-social situation in which a self is embedded to the generation
of a new self embedded in a new situation. The causal process starts with the degree to which
primary psychological needs of that self are satisfied and/or thwarted. That self will then have
some emotional reactions to that situation. Those emotions will determine where on a
spectrum from more internally to more externally motivated that self will land. Which types of
motivation are activated will influence the cognitive strategies for engaging with the situation.
The various components of the motivational processes (emotion, motivation, and cognition)
will determine what kinds of engagement that self will enact in the situation (behaviorally and
agentically). The quality of the engagement will determine the depth of learning that will
occur to produce the new self. A new situation will be generated based on the actions that the
self takes.

There are some additional components that fill out the picture more completely, but the most
essential point for now is that primary psychological needs are the most powerful
determinant of the quality of experience which is a key component of learning. Instructional
expertise in the classroom matters, but that expertise cannot be e ective in the face of
student disengagement. The Attitutor Classroom Climate prototype is exclusively focused on
primary needs in two ways, provision and satisfaction. Half of the questions are about how
well you, the teacher, are either providing support or actively frustrating the needs of
students. The other half are about how well the needs of students are being satisfied or
thwarted. The question bank includes questions regarding motivation and engagement, too,
but using them will be incorporated later.

Why Anonymize?
You may wonder why it is necessary to use the anonymized Plickers cards. The short answer is
that it mitigates against the corruption of the data you are collecting by unconscious
expectations that you and your students may have. While we like to think that we are all
holding purely good intentions for the most truthful sharing by our students and the most
neutral facilitation of the truth telling on our part as teachers, one of the most challenging
findings in psychology is that our intentions don’t count for much in the reality of data
collection. Even the most carefully controlled surveys can be biased inadvertently, so it is best
to take all practical precautions against it.

In this case data about the classroom experiences of students is being collected by the leader
of that very classroom; therefore it is predictable that you will, at least unconsciously, want
the data be favorable. Your desire to be a capable teacher introduces the possibility that you
could inadvertently a ect your students’ answers. The best way to mitigate against that
possibility would be having someone other than you collect the data while you are not even in
the room, preferably someone who has no motive that could a ect the outcome. This makes a
teaching colleague rather than your boss or a student in the class a better choice than you.

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 But, that might be asking too much for regular use. Instead I recommend that you collect data
every couple of weeks and have a more neutral party collect data only occasionally to verify
that you are on the right track.

How to use the Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool- Overview

1. Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool Kit (Dropbox Download)

2. Optional: Choose a Coaching Plan
3. Plickers Pro Account (~$10/mo, cancel anytime)
4. Question Downloading (free) & Customization before adding to Plickers
5. Question Imports & Clean up in Plickers
6. Print & cut Anonymized Plickers cards
7. Surveying
8. Data Migration (Plickers Download)
9. Data Validation
10. Pivot Table Refresh & Verification
11. How to Analyze Your Results
12. Taking Action for Improvement

1. Download the Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool Kit- QR code ———>

Verify that all of the following components were included:
1- Attitutor Classroom Climate User’s Guide (pdf)
2- Anonymous Class Roster (txt)
3- Q-Sets Question Sets (22 txt files)
4- Anonymized Cards (pdf)
5- Data Summarizers (21 spreadsheets, currently in Numbers, need Excel & OO)
6- An Attitutor Guide to Basic Educational Hygiene (pdf)
Optional / Advanced
7- Question Bank (spreadsheet, xlsx, csv)
Paid Plans: 8- Attitutor Leadership (pdf)

2. Optional: If you would like personal support for using the system choose which plan
you prefer.
Group Coaching ($10/mo., cancel anytime)
One-on-one Coaching ($100/mo., cancel anytime)

3. On your computer Go to Plickers.com to Sign up for a Plickers Pro QR —>

Account (~$10/mo., cancel anytime)
Set up a class using the ‘Anonymous Class Roster 1-40.rtf’ file. Name the
class carefully to ensure that you are distinguishing each group of
students in the class name since the students named inside will not be

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 helpful (1st period - Fall 2023, or whatever).

4. On your smartphone download the Plickers app.

5. On your computer open a Question Set in order to customize the questions.

Find and replace [Teacher’s/ principal’s name] with the name of the person being
evaluated

6. Go to the Plickers web site to set-up your survey.

Click on New Set
Click on Checkerboard icon (top le )| choose Import Questions
A er the questions are imported you will review each question. Every question needs to be
changed from the default “Graded” to “Survey.” Adding a carriage return at the beginning of
the question to put it on a new line under the statement is suggested. (If the carriage return
separates the statement from the question in the text file then the Plickers import function
will make it a separate question, thus it is necessary to do this a er the import using the
Plickers question editor.)

7. Print & cut Anonymized Plickers cards (or anonymize a set of pre-printed cards)
Printing Option: Open the file ‘4- Plickers Cards - 2up - Anonymized copy.pdf’
Print single-sided on white card stock that is a weight over 65 lbs.
Cut the cards out along the faint dotted grey lines to create a set of 40 matching squares.

8. Surveying
Explain the survey to your students.
Distribute the cards to your students.
Complete a set of practice questions that demonstrate the di erences between public,
private, and anonymous answers.

Sample Plickers Practice Questions for Students

Warm-up Questions - Public, private, & anonymous answers
What letter does your personal name begin with? (Not your family name. Answer
publicly by going to the corners of the room with your Plickers cards)
A, B, C, D, E, F, or G
H, I, J, K, L, or M
N, O, P, Q, R, or S
T, U, V, W, X, Y or Z
What letter does your family name begin with? (Not your personal name. Answer
privately using Plickers cards) Discuss the use of the camera
A, B, C, D, E, F, or G
H, I, J, K, L, or M
N, O, P, Q, R, or S
T, U, V, W, X, Y or Z

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 How old are you? (Answer anonymously using Plickers cards against a wall)
[W] years old or less
[X] years old
[Y] years old
[Z] years old or more
Giving answers anonymously on a survey means:
Other people can’t tell who gave which answers, so your privacy is protected
None of the answers are right or wrong, so your feelings will not be hurt
Scores are not counted, so you will not have to think too hard
The questions are hard to answer, so you will be challenged to think hard
If you give answers that are not true, what happens?
Your teacher might waste their time trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist
Your teacher might not know that there is a problem that needs to be solved
You will be wasting the time and e ort of everyone in this class
All of the above

Caution: Make sure that you use the regular survey questions in the order provided in each
set so that when you transfer your data to the Summarizer spreadsheet it is going to match
up. If they do not match up you will have to take extra time to ensure that the questions and
answers are being matched up properly.

9. Export to csv in order to migrate your data from Plickers to your computer
Verify That Your Set Numbers Match the spreadsheet and the set used on Plickers
Header Paste Above Red Row (URL?)
Data Paste Below Red Row
The reason that your are pasting above and below the Red Row is because that row will
provide headers that will display the code indicating which particular question was used for
each construct (autonomy/competence/relatedness, support/ thwart, etc.). Showing those
codes will make trouble shooting problems far easier.

Caution: Make sure that you paste everything in exactly the right place. Pasting in the wrong
place will destroy your results, but you won’t be able to tell. (Eventually we will be able to
ditch the spreadsheets when a more robust database system can automatically ensure that
your processing results are accurate, but for now extra caution is necessary.)

10. Data Validation

Verify that question codes match those in the Question Bank

11. Pivot Table Refresh & Verification

(for Apple Numbers Spreadsheets, Excel version needed)
Goto “Actionable Summary” tab to be updated
Select the Organize tab on right side
Select the Pivot Options tab

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 Click on the circular arrow in the upper right

Verify that the codes in each pivot table match the Need listed in the heading for each
table.
If so, all is good.
If not, are the questions in the dataset in the same order as the Summarizer
Spreadsheet?
If so, all is good.
If not, 1) you will need to paste the header section of the dataset into the
Summarizer Data Sheet
2) Organizer | Pivot Options Select a table (relatedness pivot, autonomy pivot,
or competence pivot)
3) Check all the boxes for the matching codes for the need table selected
4) move all the matching code items out of Columns to Values
5) leave only one matching item in the Rows (it will be a duplicate of one of the
Values items)
6) The order of the Values items should be in pairs from top to bottom: Sts, Frs,
Spt, Twt
7) The resulting table will probably have formatting that no longer matches the
default but that is irrelevant to getting the right results

12. How to Analyze Your Results

The prototype of the Attitutor Classroom Climate Tool is focused on the psychological needs
for relatedness, autonomy, and competence. Two aspects of needs are evaluated; the
provision for needs by a specific leader and the satisfaction and frustration of the needs
according to the learners (followers).

The summarizers present the count of how many of each kind of answer was given. Certain
answers to each item indicates whether the situation for that need is satisfactory (“Good”) or
needs improvement (“Do Better”).

13. Taking Action for Improvement

Consult the free pdf booklet An Attitutor Guide to Basic Education Hygiene to gather ideas for
improvement.
To deepen your learning with regard to maximizing motivation and engagement as a
classroom and/or school leader sign-up for the coaching plan and do your best to make sense
of the pdf booklet Attitutor Leadership.

Cautions: How to Invoke Troubleshooting

Skipping a question during surveying
Pasting inaccurately when transferring survey data into the summarizer spreadsheet

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 Principles of Action & Where to find the science

HolisticEquity.org
SelfDeterminationTheory.org

Codes & Colors in the Summarizers

Banana Yellow ———- Nds-***-Sts-# or Nds-***-Frs-#
Banana Yellow ———- NSp-***-Spt-# or NSp-***-Twt-#
Honeydew Green ——- Nds-***-Sts-# or Nds-***-Frs-#
Honeydew Green ——- NSp-***-Spt-# or NSp-***-Twt-#
Bubblegum Pink ———Nds-***-Sts-# or Nds-***-Frs-#
Bubblegum Pink ———NSp-***-Spt-# or NSp-***-Twt-#
Ice Blue ———————- Nds-***-Sts-# or Nds-***-Frs-#
Ice Blue ———————- NSp-***-Spt-# or NSp-***-Twt-#

Nds = Needs Eng = Engagement

Sts = Satisfaction Agnt = Agentic
Frs = Frustration Bhv = Behavioral
NSp = Needs Provision Mtv = Motivation
Spt = Support Emt = Emotional
Twt = Thwart Extrn = External Regulation
# = 1-4 Ingrt = Integrated Regulation
*** = A Need Idt = Identified Regulation
Rlt = Relatedness Itj = Introjected Regulation
Atn = Autonomy Itrsc = Intrinsic Motivation
Cmp = Competence Cgn = Cognitive

——- Development Notes

Information for Creating a Non-Plickers System

Actionable Summaries are the average of each pair of need specific items.
The instrument consists of sub-scales for each positive and negative version of each need for
both provision and satisfaction.
There are four items for each sub-scale, but only two are asked at a time.
Ideally, the questions would be asked in random order.
In order to produce the randomness in Plickers initially it was necessary to create the
randomly ordered question sets.
The answers would normally include a neutral middle answer (Likert-style), but Plickers is
currently limited to four response items.

Wish List
Excel and Open O ice versions of all spreadsheets

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 Anonymous Class List via Plickers

Anonymous Card Set Pre-printed available on Amazon
A Question Bank System via Plickers
Automatic Randomization of Question Sets (to replace our Q-Sets)
Sub-Scale IDs
Sub-Scale Scoring System (to replace Summarizers)
Up to 8 answer options via Plickers
Online Database System for Plug-&-Play usability for data processing

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