The increasing impact of performance based judgments on schools and teachers in the classroom has its critics and supporters. Some oppose the trend and seek to deny the importance of quantitative measures. Others have sought to find ways of implementing educational measurement constructively and with understanding of the concerns. Classrooms are where the operational business of learning takes place and it is on the quality of life within the classroom that the broader process of learning, concerns for the wider community and others, is nurtured. The climate of the classroom has a large impact on the final outcome measure to which so much interest is directed. To help our understanding of the dynamics involved much work has been done in the development and refinement of quantitative studies to this area by studying essential information about how teachers and students perceive the environments in which the work. Research on classroom climates has reached a practical and theoretical maturity and this volume offers an account of the developments that have taken place and the potential for understanding the classroom as a vital component of the curriculum. This book will also be an essential resource tool for anyone engaged in classroom research.
Teachers rarely get to see good teaching in the classes of others, usually because they are too busy in their own classrooms. The teaching practices of mathematics and science teachers recognized as good teachers in Western Australia were studied in the hope that other teachers might learn from these findings. Exemplary teachers (n=22) and a comparison group of non-exemplary teachers were observed and the students of these teachers completed questionnaires. This article discusses the patterns of behavior found among the exemplary teachers in the areas of: classroom management, emphasis on student understanding, favorable classroom learning environment, strong content knowledge, and encouraging student participation. (MKR)
A manual for educators describing a questionnaire designed for measuring perceptions of the classroom environment among secondary school students or their teachers. Includes a master set of test forms which can be copied.
A comprehensive and rigorous investigation of the person-environment fit hypothesis that students achieve better in their preferred environment is described. The design of this study included four notable features. First, the student outcome domain included a comprehensive range of six affective and three cognitive outcomes. Second, classroom environment was measured with the five scales contained in the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) and the nine scales which make up an instrument called the Classroom Environment Scale (CES). Third, the sample size of 116 junior high school classes was large and permitted use of the class mean as the unit of statistical analysis where this was considered appropriate. Fourth, it provided a methodological improvement in that it made use of regression surface analysis to provide a powerful multivariate method of statistical analysis which enabled person-environment interactions to be represented as the products of continuous variables. Results confirmed that students achieved better where there was a greater similarity between the actual classroom environment and that preferred by students. To facilitate future research in the area of classroom environment, attention is given to describing the ICEQ and CES and reporting the impressive validation data obtained with the present sample of 116 classes. (Author/PN)
The International Handbook of Science Education is a two volume edition pertaining to the most significant issues in science education. It is a follow-up to the first Handbook, published in 1998, which is seen as the most authoritative resource ever produced in science education. The chapters in this edition are reviews of research in science education and retain the strong international flavor of the project. It covers the diverse theories and methods that have been a foundation for science education and continue to characterize this field. Each section contains a lead chapter that provides an overview and synthesis of the field and related chapters that provide a narrower focus on research and current thinking on the key issues in that field. Leading researchers from around the world have participated as authors and consultants to produce a resource that is comprehensive, detailed and up to date. The chapters provide the most recent and advanced thinking in science education making the Handbook again the most authoritative resource in science education.
During 1974, materials developed by the Australian Science Education Projects (ASEP) became available in final published form. The publication of these materials was an especially important undertaking since ASEP was the first national curriculum project, in any subject area, to be developed in Australia. This report presents research into four aspects of ASEP evaluation. All studies were conducted at the seventh grade level and involved students in Victoria high schools. Questionnaires were used in the first study (chapter 2) to investigate teachers' understanding of ASEP philosophy and the impact of ASEP materials on their ideas about science teaching. In the second study (chapter 3), a battery of learning outcome measures were administered to ASEP/non-ASEP students at the beginning and end of the school year to examine the effectiveness of ASEP/non-ASEP materials in promoting learning changes. The impact of the learning environment as a focus for curriculum evaluation and research related to the learning environment in ASEP classrooms was investigated in the third study (chapter 4). The fourth study (chapter 5) made a comparison between classroom climate perceptions of ASEP/non-ASEP students and looked at the relationship between those perceptions and student learning. Objectives, methodology, results, and conclusions are provided for each of the studies. (Background information, origin/nature of ASEP, contemporary scene in science education, and first/second generation curriculum projects are discussed in the introductory section of the report. Appendixes present results of two 1974 surveys of science teachers' knowledge and use of ASEP, sample items from scales measuring learning outcomes, and examples of student activity charts.) (JN)
The increasing impact of performance based judgments on schools and teachers in the classroom has its critics and supporters. Some oppose the trend and seek to deny the importance of quantitative measures. Others have sought to find ways of implementing educational measurement constructively and with understanding of the concerns. Classrooms are where the operational business of learning takes place and it is on the quality of life within the classroom that the broader process of learning, concerns for the wider community and others, is nurtured. The climate of the classroom has a large impact on the final outcome measure to which so much interest is directed. To help our understanding of the dynamics involved much work has been done in the development and refinement of quantitative studies to this area by studying essential information about how teachers and students perceive the environments in which the work. Research on classroom climates has reached a practical and theoretical maturity and this volume offers an account of the developments that have taken place and the potential for understanding the classroom as a vital component of the curriculum. This book will also be an essential resource tool for anyone engaged in classroom research.
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