Part 2: Instruments for Assessing Learning Environments and Issues involved In Environment Research

Learning Points From Articles:
1) Classroom Environment Research: Progress and Possibilities - Jeffrey Dorman
2) Science Learning Environment: Assessment, Efffects and Determinants - Barry Fraser
3) Learning Environments Research: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow - Barry Fraser

These points are a continuation from the previous post on 'brief background and major contributors..."

There are many established instruments used in learning envrionment and many have a long history and re-adapted in many studies.

1) Learning Environment Inventory - LEI
- developed in conjunction with the evaluation and research related to Harvard Project Physic
(Fraser, Anderson & Walberg, 1982)

2) Classroom Environment Scale - CES
- By Rudolf Moos at Standford University
- it grew out of a comprehensive program of research invloving perceptual measures of a variety of human environments that include universities, hospitals, corporations.

3) Individualised Classroom Envrionment Questionnaire (ICEQ)
- assesses dimensions that differentiate between individualised classrooms from conventional ones
- first published version consisted of 90 items, by Fraser
- initial development of this instrument was based on extensive interviewing of teachers & students, literature on individualised open and inquiry-based education

4) My Class Inventory (MCI)
- simpler form of the LEI to suit children's use, aged 8-12 years
- found to be quite useful with junior high school students too, and those with reading difficulties
- minimises fatigue - there's a reduction in scales, from LEI's initial 15 scales to 5 scales only
- LEI's 4 pt likert scale was reduced to a 2 point (Yes/No) response format
- Final version contains 38 items altogether, eg: "Children are always fighting with each other."
(refer to Fraser's readings for more information)

5) College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI)
- developed for use in small classes, eg: up to 30 students

6) Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)
- research originated in the Neatherlands, focuses on the nature and quality of interpersonal relationships between teachers and students
- based on a theoretical model of proximity (cooperation- opposition) and influence (dominance-submission), the QTI was developed to assess student perceptions of eight behaviour aspects
- each item had a 5 pt Likert scale, ranging from Never to Always

7) Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI)
- used to assess laboratory settings in science education
- has 5 scales, each with 7 items and the responses are - Almost Never, Seldom, Somtimes, Often and Very Often

8) Constructivist Learning Environmnent Survey (CLES)
- the constructivist view holds that meaningful learning is a cognitive process in which individuals make sense of the world in relation to the knowledge which they already have contructed, and this sense-making process invloves active negotiation and consensus building
(Refer to Fraser's reading for more details)
- the instrument was developed to help teachers and researchers assess how consisten the classroom environment is congruent with the constructivist epistemology
- results can help shape teachers' assumptions and reflect on their teaching practices

9) What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) Questionnaire
- combined modified versions of the most saliet scales from a wide range of exsiting questionnaires with additional scales that accomodate contemporary educational concerns (eg: equity and constructivism)
- consists of "Personal" form - used for assessing a students' personal perceptions of his role in the classroom and "Actual" form - used for assessing students' perceptions of the class as a whole)
- Original 90 item nine-scale version was refined by both statistical analysis of data from many high school students and extensive interviewing of students' views of their classroom environments, of which only 54 items were sieved out
- this instrument had been readapted and revised many times, and had been used cross-validated in many research studies

10) Other instruments had been developed by Fraser, Dorman and McRobbie, many of which were modifications of some of the above instruments to suit other learning environments

General Approaches to the assessment of learning environments
a) use trained observers to code events, usually in terms of explicit phenomena
b) use of student and teacher perceptions obtained through questionnaire administration
3) uses of ethographic data collection methods

Uses/ Purposes of Research in Learning Environments - Refer to examples given in the following areas in Fraser's reading, "Learning Environments Research: Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow." (The first two readings also offer similar reasons)
1) Associations between student outcomes and environments
2) Evaluation of educational innovations
3) Differences between student and teacher perceptions of actual and preferred environment
4) Determinants of classroom environment - classroom environment dimensions have been used as criterion variables in research aimed at identifying how the classroom environment varies with factors such as teacher personality, class size, grade level
5) Use of qualitative methods - combined with quantitative methods and to complement statistical findings
6) Cross-national studies - eg: Australian teachers were perceived to give more responsibilities and freedom to their students compared to Singaporean teachers, in a cross-national study of secondary science classes

Other learning points from article: Learning Environments Research- Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow
- Asian research in learning environments followed a very trajectory compared with Western research in the sense that there has been a strong emphasis on the use of validated and robust instruments that assess pupils' perceptions of their classroom learning environment
- Asian researchers have conducted many numerous impressive studies that have cross-validated the main contemporary classroom environment questionnaires
- But asian researchers had been less active in the development of new instruments
- More works should be done in the development of such instruments to capture the uniqueness and nuances of asian classroom environments
- Asian research most commonly centered on investigating aossications between students' outcomes and their classroom environment perceptions
- More research needs to be done on the practical benefit of assessing pupils' preferred and actual perceptions of the classroom environment