Using student perceptions to compare actual and preferred classroom environment in Queensland schools

Students’ perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment were investigated using the What is happening in this class? questionnaire (WIHIC). The WIHIC assesses seven classroom environment dimensions: student cohesiveness, teacher support, involvement, task orientation, investigation, cooperation and equity. A sample of 978 secondary school students from 63 classes in Queensland responded to the WIHIC. For each item on the WIHIC, students recorded their perceptions of the actual (or real) and preferred (or ideal) classroom environment. Results revealed that statistically significant differences between actual and preferred environments, and that the gap between actual and preferred environment was smaller for more positive classroom environments.     

Investing in high quality preschool: lessons from an urban setting

Abstract

Large numbers of children of low income families in the United States arrive at kindergarten already far behind their more affluent peers on measures of school readiness. In the absence of any federal preschool policy and amidst alarm about this growing divide, universal prekindergarten (UPK) programs have been launched around the United States, at both the state and local levels, to address the school readiness gap. Invest in Children, a public/private partnership in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland, OH) launched a UPK program of high quality, affordable preschool nine years ago. The program’s creation, implementation and challenges are discussed along with evaluation findings that document its positive impact on school readiness. Lessons learned are discussed in terms of the impact of political and economic shifts, as well as state policy changes, on this local program. The program’s planned expansion and enhancements to program design and evaluation are also described.     

Design Research as a Mechanism for Consultants to Facilitate and Evaluate Educational Innovations

Schools across the nation are implementing innovative practices; however, questions remain regarding how to facilitate quality implementation. Research designs that emphasize high degrees of control over independent variables result in findings with internal validity, but that may not generalize to complex, dynamic educational systems. The purpose of this article is to propose a design research framework as a mechanism for consultants to facilitate and evaluate innovation implementation. Information on design research principles and processes is provided, and issues to consider when applying the framework are discussed. An illustration of how a design research framework was applied in a large-scale initiative to implement and evaluate Response to Intervention (RtI) implementation is also provided. Finally, issues and questions to consider relative to consultants' use of design research principles are explored.     

Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools

Much Catholic school and church rhetoric suggests that Catholic schools possess distinctive learning environments. Research into this aspect of Catholic schooling has been hampered by the lack of an appropriate assessment instrument. By drawing on contemporary church literature, the perceptions of personnel involved in Catholic education and existing classroom environment questionnaires, a new instrument was developed to assess student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in Catholic schools. The use of this instrument in 64 classrooms in Catholic and Government schools indicated significant differences on some scales. The distinctive nature of Catholic schooling did not extend to all classroom environment dimensions deemed important to Catholic education. Specializations: Catholic education, learning environments. Specializations: conceptual change in students, science teacher professional development, scientific reasoning, learning environments. Specializations: learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.     

Associations Between Classroom Environment and Academic Efficacy

Research was conducted on associations between classroom psychosocial environment and academic efficacy. A sample of 1055 mathematics students from Australian secondary schools responded to an instrument that assessed ten dimensions of mathematics classroom environment (viz. Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation, Equity, Involvement, Personal Relevance, Shared Control, Student Negotiation). These scales were from two existing instruments, namely, What Is Happening In This Classroom? (WIHIC) and the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). A seven-item scale assessed students' academic efficacy at mathematics-related tasks. Simple and multiple correlation analyses revealed statistically significant correlations between these classroom environment dimensions and academic efficacy. Results showed that classroom environment relates positively with academic efficacy. A commonality analysis showed that the three scales from the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey scales did not contribute greatly to explaining variance in academic efficacy beyond that attributed to the seven scales in the What Is Happening In This Classroom? questionnaire.     

Cross-National Validation of the What is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) Questionnaire using Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Learning Environments Research - The What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire was validated cross-nationally using a sample of 3980 high school students from Australia, the UK and...     

Use of multitrait-multimethod modelling to validate actual and preferred forms of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire

This article describes the validation of scores on actual and preferred forms of the What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC). The WIHIC is a 56-item instrument that assesses seven classroom environment dimensions: Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Investigation, Task Orientation, Cooperation and Equity. A sample of 978 secondary school students from Australia responded to actual and preferred forms of the WIHIC. Separate confirmatory factor analyses for the actual and preferred forms supported the seven-scale a priori structure of the instrument. Fit statistics indicated a good fit of the models to the data. The use of multitrait-multimethod modelling with the seven scales as traits and the two forms of the instrument as methods supported the WIHIC’s construct validity. This research has provided strong evidence of the sound psychometric properties of the WIHIC.     

Using Academics' Perceptions of University Environment to Distinguish between Australian Universities

This paper reports a discriminant analysis of Australian universities using academics' perceptions of their university-level environment. A sample of 514 academics from 52 departments in 26 publicly funded universities responded to the University-Level Environment Questionnaire, which assesses academic's perceptions of seven dimensions of institutional environment (viz. Academic Freedom, Concern for Undergraduate Learning, Concern for Research and Scholarship, Empowerment, Affiliation, Mission Consensus and Work Pressure). Discriminant analysis revealed that the four university types were separated by the first discriminant function, with long-established universities separated widely from new universities. Concern for Research and Scholarship was the major discriminating variable, with Academic Freedom a minor discriminating variable. The study suggests that new universities must improve their level of research and scholarship if they are to become more like other Australian universities.     

Associations between school-level environment and science classroom environment in secondary schools

This article describes a study of links between school environment and science classroom environment. Instruments to assess seven dimensions of school environment (viz., Empowerment, Student Support, Affiliation, Professional Interest, Mission Consensus, Resource Adequacy and Work Pressure) and seven dimensions of classroom environment (viz., Student Affiliation, Interactions, Cooperation, Task Orientation, Order & Organisation, Individualisati n and Teacher Control) in secondary school science classrooms were developed and validated. The study involved a sample of 1,318 students in 64 year 9 and year 12 science classes and 128 teachers of science in Australian secondary schools. Using the class mean as the unit of analysis for student data, associations between school and classroom environment were investigated using simple, multiple and canonical correlational analyses. In general, results indicated weak relationships between school and classroom environments and they reinforced the view that characteristics of the school environment are not transmitted automatically into science classrooms.