Studies in Educational Learning Environments

The following sections are included:

• Foreword

• Preface

• From the Editors

• About the Contributors

• Contents

Learning environments research has expanded remarkably over the past few decades on the international scene, with Asian researchers making important and distinct contributions particularly over the previous decade. Asian researchers have cross-validated the main contemporary classroom environment questionnaires that originated in the West and have undertaken careful translations and adaptations for use in the Chinese, Korean, Malay and Indonesian languages. Asian studies have replicated Western research in establishing consistent associations between the classroom environment and student outcomes, in using learning environment assessments in evaluating educational programs, and in identifying determinants of learning environments. Some desirable directions for future learning environment research in Asia include more use of qualitative research methods and using learning environment assessments to guide practitioners' attempts to improve their classrooms.

The purpose of this chapter is to describe the development and validation of an instrument designed to assess culturally-sensitive factors of science students' learning environments, and to examine associations between these factors, students' achievement of problem-solving skills, students' abilities to utilise literacy skills into science, and students' enjoyment of their science lessons. The development of a measure of culturally-sensitive factors of the learning environment, namely the Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLEQ), is described. The instrument, which was influenced by Hofstede's four dimensions of culture (Power–Distance, Uncertainty–Avoidance, Individualism, and Masculinity–Femininity) and past learning environment research, contained seven scales. With a large sample of students, the reliability and validity of the CLEQ scales were confirmed. The CLEQ confirmed the diversity of classrooms, indicated by examining the standard deviations of each scale for different classrooms. Associations were found between the CLEQ scales and problem-solving skills, students' abilities to utilise literacy skills into science and with students' enjoyment of their science lessons. The chapter concludes with a consideration of the implications for teachers.

The study of learning environments has gained considerable and widespread use as a research model suitable for investigating the effects and affects of educational innovations. An important new area for inquiry on student perceptions of the learning environment would then be the study of these in the newly emerging "information technology-rich" classrooms which are being implemented throughout the world. This chapter will report on a number of investigations into the use of Internet technologies in high school classrooms in Australia and Canada. Specifically, it combines studies of the physical and psychosocial learning environments operating within these "technological settings" and investigates interactions among the selected physical and psychosocial factors in influencing students' satisfaction with their learning. Further, the chapter will describe how both the physical and psychosocial domains may effectively enable, or alternatively, constrain the teaching methodologies used in these classrooms. The chapter reports on two phases of investigation. The first, involves a broad examination of the learning environment as measured with a questionnaire containing items measuring aspects of the psychosocial learning environment and with ergonomic site evaluations. The second phase studied interactions among physical and psychosocial variables in these measures through the use of selected and detailed case studies from the original sample. Case studies included a more detailed assessment of the physical classroom environment in tandem with classroom observations and student/teacher interviews. The studies offer insight into varied approaches to technology implementation and teaching practice.

In the classroom environment, the interpersonal relationship between teacher and students is an important element contributing to the learning process of students. In this chapter, we explore the significance of the experience of the teacher in realising relationships with students, appropriate from the perspective of student outcomes. We use data from a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study to analyse differences between teachers in degree of dominant and co-operative behaviour in different stages of their professional career.

The results show that teachers' ideals of the teacher–student relationship are rather stable during the teaching career; they consistently strive for a high degree of dominance and co-operativeness. The actual teacher–student relationship however changes during the career. On average, there is a significant increase in dominant behaviour of teachers during the first decade of their career: a movement towards the ideal teacher–student relationship. After this period, dominance stabilises. On average, there is no change in co-operative behaviour. There is no shift towards the ideal as experience grows. Implications of these findings for professional development of teachers in view of improving the classroom learning environment include training of dominant behavioural patterns and differentiation of accompanying cognitions and attitudes for pre- and in-service beginning teachers. During the career, the cognitive component to training and staff development may be more important in order to support teachers to select appropriate skills in particular situations.

Learning environments are dynamic and interactive sociocultural entities that are shaped by the agency of individuals interacting with human and material resources in ways that afford their agency while constraining what they can accomplish. All activity is mediated by history and social and cultural phenomena. The chapter illustrates how teaching in urban science classrooms can only sustain productive environments with the collective acceptance of all members of a learning community and a conscious awareness of the intersection of cultural fields and a necessity to build science literacy on the capital from those fields while actively suppressing strategies of action from those same fields that would otherwise inhibit learning.

Many countries around the world realise that there must be an adequate provision made for science education in order to face challenges in the new millennium. In recent years, the Government in Brunei has given due emphasis to science education by making available adequate resources for the teaching of science in all schools. In general, studies made on the learning of science revealed that there was a trend towards a decrease in the number of students in the science stream. Although government schools are well equipped and provided with the necessary resources, there are indications that examination results have been unsatisfactory. In order to improve the teaching and learning context, it is important to look into the learning environment created by teachers, the interactions and interrelationships among teachers and students. This chapter describes the recent attempts to study various aspects of educational learning environment in Brunei with the aim of improving science education in primary and secondary schools. This chapter also discusses the issues and future directions of investigations in different science classrooms.

Learning environment as an integral part of the learning process has received considerable attention from educational researchers in the past decades. Studies in learning environment in Indonesia had been conducted in the late 1970s and early 1980s in Padang (West Sumatra) and East Java. In 2000, learning environment studies began to make its appearance again in Indonesia. These recent studies were carried out mainly in computer science classes at the tertiary level and they focused on the influence of the learning environment on students' cognitive and affective outcomes. Students' perceptions of the classroom environment were measured using adapted and translated versions of the What Is Happening In This Class? (WIHIC) Questionnaire. Results of the research are highlighted in the chapter. It is hoped that this information will help readers understand the current status of research in educational learning environments in Indonesia.

The research on Korean classroom environment was initiated by a graduate student in 1994 on psychosocial environment in science laboratory classes. Since then, researchers have undertaken several studies on learning environment within diverse contexts, namely, primary, junior high and senior high, theory lessons and laboratory lessons, with adapted questionnaires. Among those researchers, Heui Baik Kim especially has shown continuous effort in research on learning environment, which involved various levels of stakeholders and diverse contexts, by being aware of usability of recent instruments. She also suggested that more qualitative investigations are needed to explain the quantitative results and to understand the real socio-psychological environments of science classrooms in detail so that they can be improved in Korea. With guidance of previous researchers' effort, Sunny Lee undertook more in-depth study, involving high school students from three different streams. She employed combination of quantitative and qualitative methodology and also used multiple instruments in her single study. Recently, researchers have conducted several studies, reflecting on current curriculum reform movement. Learning Environment study is a growing field in Korea, with huge potential in terms of depth and width. Authors expect this chapter to be able to encourage researchers in Korea to look at with wider and deeper perspectives and contribute to improve current educational situation in Korea.

Research on learning environments in Singapore emerged recently in the last decade of the twentieth century and it has attracted considerable interest among educators. This chapter presents research in the field covering primary, secondary and tertiary levels. The research also involved the study of a wide spectrum of classroom learning environments in social studies, science, mathematics, computer classrooms, and that of science laboratories. These studies were carried out in schools, junior colleges, university and adult education classes. In general, the findings, through perceptions of students and teachers, attest to the importance of learning environments in terms of student achievement and attitude.

As learning environment research is a relatively new field of research in Taiwan, it is hoped that the research reported in this chapter will pave the way for more such studies. This chapter reports a research project that investigated students' perceptions of learning environments in science classes in Taiwan. The researchers were involved in developing, modifying, translating and validating the What is Happening in this Class (WIHIC) questionnaire. The questionnaire, along with an attitude scale, provided the quantitative data for the study. Qualitative data were derived from classroom observations and interviews with teachers and students. The results indicate that social and cultural expectations of the teacher's role was one of the main factors preventing science teachers from creating more positive classroom environments in Taiwan. Based on results of the study, implications of the findings and suggestions for improvements in science classroom environments are introduced to the community of science educators in Taiwan.

The following sections are included:

• Selected Bibliography

• Index