Darrell Fisher

Monitoring constructivist classroom learning environments

The incorporation of constructivist and critical theory perspectives on the farming of the classroom learning environment led to the development of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). CLES enables researchers and teacher-researchers to monitor constructivist teaching approaches and to address key restraints to the development of constructivist classroom climates. CLES assesses either student or teacher perceptions of Personal Relevance, Uncertainty, Student Negotiation, Shared Control, and Critical Voice. The p plausibility of the CLES was established in small-scale classroom-based qualitative studies and its statistical integrity and robustness were validated in large-scale studies conducted in the USA and Australia.

Predicting Students’ Outcomes from Their Perceptions of Classroom Psychosocial Environment

Relationships between students’ affective and cognitive outcomes and their perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment as measured by the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) and the Classroom Environment Scale (CES) were investigated for a sample of 1,083 junior high school students in 116 classrooms. Six different statistical analyses (simple correlation, multiple correlation, and canonical correlation analysis conducted separately for raw post-test scores and residual posttest scores adjusted for corresponding pretest and general ability) revealed sizable environment-outcome associations. Further analyses showed that the ICEQ and CES made appreciable, unique contributions to explaining outcome variance, and that the magnitudes of environment-outcome relationships were larger when the class was employed as the unit of analysis than when the student was used.

Assessment and Investigation of Constructivist Science Learning Environments in Korea

Abstract This paper describes an investigation in Korea of the extent to which a new general science curriculum, reflecting a constructivist view, has influenced the classroom learning environment in grade 10 science. The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) was selected for the investigation and translated into Korean. Other objectives of this study were to determine whether the Korean version of the CLES is valid and reliable, differences between students’ perceptions of their actual and preferred learning environment and associations between students’ perceptions of the constructivist learning environment and their attitude to science. The Korean‐language version of the CLES was found to be valid and reliable and grade 10 students did perceive a more constructivist learning environment than grade 11 students who had not been exposed to the new curriculum. This suggested that efforts of curriculum reform had produced some positive effects. Students tended to prefer a more positive environme...

Technology-Rich Learning Environments: A Future Perspective

The Validation and Application of a New Learning Environment Instrument for Online Learning in Higher Education (V Chang & D Fisher) - Effectiveness of a Technology-Rich and Outcomes-Focused Learning Environment (J Aldridge & B Fraser) - Working with Technology-Rich Learning Environments: Strategies for Success (S Trinidad) - Technology-Rich Learning Environments and the Role of Effective Teaching (T Rickards) - Assessing and Researching the On-Line Learning Environment (J Clayton) - Technology and Maritime Education and Training: A Future Perspective (P Muirhead) - Students as Change Agents: The Generation Y Model (D Harper) - A System of Reciprocity: Empowering Stakeholders to Do More with Less in Educational Technology (C P Fulford & A Eichelberger) - and other articles

Validity and Use of the Classroom Environment Scale

In a recent monograph, Fraser (1981a) argues that classroom environment variables should be incorporated more often when designing evaluations of educational programs. When used in evaluations as dependent variables, characteristics of classroom psychosocial environment provide important process criteria of curricular effectiveness (Walberg, 1975). In fact, in past evaluation studies (Fraser, 1979a; Welch & Walberg, 1972), classroom environment dimensions have differentiated revealingly between students following different curricula when a range of outcome measures showed little sensitivity. Also, because consistently strong associations have been found between student learning outcomes and the nature of the classroom environment (Haertel, Walberg, & Haertel, 1981), it is desirable that educational program evaluations that use student outcomes as criterion variables also include classroom environment dimensions as independent variables because they are important codeterminants of student outcomes. This article aims to stimulate and facilitate more frequent use of classroom environment variables in educational program evaluation by reporting a study of the validity and use of a widely applicable instrument called the Classroom Environment Scale (CES). Also, important implications for the design and interpretation of evaluation studies are drawn from the present research applications using the CES. Before this research is considered, the following section briefly overviews past classroom environment research, including the development and use of the CES.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF TEACHER INTERPERSONAL STYLE: THE FRONT OF THE CLASSROOM AS THE TEACHER’S STAGE

Abstract In previous research, associations were shown between students’ perceptions of teacher interpersonal style and variables such as student outcomes and problems with order in the classroom. In the study described in this paper, associations are investigated between these students’ perceptions and judges’ ratings of the interpersonal aspect of videotaped teacher behaviour. Judges only saw one minute of videotaped teacher behaviour during either whole class teaching or individual seatwork. Strong correlations were established between students’ perceptions and judges’ ratings of teacher behaviour during whole class teaching. No significant correlations were found between students’ perceptions and judges’ ratings of teacher behaviour during individual seatwork. It is argued that students’ perceptions of teacher interpersonal style are primarily formed when the teacher is in front of the classroom. At those moments a working climate is created that lasts for the whole lesson and beyond.

Teacher–Student Interactions in Korean High School Science Classrooms

This paper provides a preliminary picture of teacher–student interaction in Korean senior high schools. In order to do this, the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) was translated into Korean and administered to 439 students (99 science-independent stream students, 195 science-oriented stream students and 145 humanities stream students). Based on the results from this survey, interviews with some students and teachers were also carried out and three science classrooms were also observed. It was found that the teacher–student interactions in Korean senior high school science classrooms reflect the general image of the youth-elder relationship in society as well as the senior high schools unique nature – portraying a scene of ‘directing teachers and obeying students’. It was also found that students experience unique interactions in their science classrooms with their particular teachers. It was considered that this difference comes from the overlapping of a teachers personal characteristics with the nature of a stream (e.g., curriculum, expectation towards the students in that stream). This article reports part of a larger study conducted with Korean senior high school students and teachers. The aim of the main study was to investigate three different aspects of the high school science classroom environments in Korea, namely, the degree of implementation of constructivism, the pattern of teacher–student interactions, and the learning environment in laboratory classes. Based on the realisation that teacher–student interactions have not been systematically dealt with especially at the senior high school level in Korea, this article pays particularly attention to this aspect. The intention was also to provide useful insights for improving the current situation in senior high school science classrooms in Korea.

Assessing and improving school climate

Abstract Past work on psychosocial environments can be divided usefully into research involving students’ perceptions of their classroom‐level environment and studies of teachers’ perceptions of their school‐level environment. Of several instruments for assessing school environment, Mooss Work Environment Scale (WES) is unique in its focus on the school as a work setting and it has considerable potential for use with teachers despite the fact that it was designed initially for any work milieu. Its ten dimensions of Involvement, Peer Cohesion, Staff Support, Autonomy, Task Orientation, Work Pressure, Clarity, Control, Innovation, and Physical Comfort seem quite well‐suited to describing salient features of the school‐teachers work environment. Administration of a slightly re‐worded version of the WES to a large sample of teachers responding to both an actual form (N=599) and a preferred form (N=543) attested to the internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity of both forms with either the i...

An Application of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction and College and University Classroom Environment Inventory in a Multicultural Tertiary Context

The research reported in this inquiry consisted of the application of two classroom learning environment questionnaires developed in a Western context to a culturally diverse context, namely, the Pacific Islands. The College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI) and Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) instruments were administered to intact classes of first- and second-year science students ( n= 257) at a regional university in the Pacific Islands, containing a total of 12 ethnicities. The data reveal that the QTI instrument holds good reliability for all scales, whereas the CUCEI holds reliability for only two scales. This may be due to the simple nature of the questions on the QTI whereas the questions on the CUCEI require more interpretation, the latter exacerbated by the fact that English is a second or third language for most participants. Surprisingly, there were few differences in perceptions of teacher student interaction based on ethnicity, but substantial differences based on gender. As reported in previous classroom environment research at the secondary school level, in this study, females perceived their environment more favourably than males. The data for the QTI reveal that the students perceive their classrooms to be highly teacher dominated, consistent with previous naturalistic studies of secondary schools and exploratory studies at the tertiary level in Fiji. Since almost all the graduates from this institution become science teachers, a cycle is completed.

Laboratory learning environments and practical tasks in senior secondary science classes

Laboratory work is seen as an integral part of most science courses; however, a significant proportion of laboratory activities remain highly prescriptive and fail to challenge many secondary science students. This study of senior high school biology, chemistry and physics laboratory environments drew data from student responses to theScience Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) and a curriculum analysis of the implemented laboratory tasks. The study involved 387 biology, chemistry and physics students in 20 classes in Tasmania, Australia. The curriculum analysis was based on Lunetta and Tamir’sLaboratory Structure and Task Analysis Inventory and theLaboratory Task Analysis. The study found that the SLEI did differentiate between the three subject areas and that theLaboratory Structure and Task Analysis Inventory confirmed the more open-ended nature of the school physics in vestigations evident from students’ responses to the SLEI.