REFLECTIONS ON SESSION 4

Objectives for Session 4
(a) Features of a learning environment assessment questionnaire
(b) Evaluate the school learning environment through case studies
(c) How to assess a classroom learning environment

(i) How to administer a survey on the learning environment
(ii) How to use a special template for recording and collating the data collected and to
calculate the means
(iii) How to use the software, SPSS, to analyse the data to determine if the scales in the
questionnaire are reliable using Cronbach reliability coefficient and find the means

Overview Of Lesson

We learnt how we can assess the learning environment using instruments/questionnaires. There are already validated instruments that we can modify to suit our requirements. We need not start from scratch and need not have to validate the instrument. We looked at one instrument, The School Level Environment Questionnaire (SLCEQ), in detail to learn the features needed to construct a questionnaire.

When constructing a questionnaire, we need to determine what scales we want to measure and ensure that they are aligned with Moo's schema.

In SLCEQ there are 9 scales.
Relationship - Student support / Affiliation
Personal development - Professional interest / Achievement orientaiton
System maintenance and system change - Staff freedom / Preparatory decision making /
Innovation / Resource adequacy / Work pressure

Each scale will be a block of an average of 4-5 items written in positive terms. There should not be too many questions in a questionnaire - 25 items is a good number. The Likert scale should have 4-5 responses that are arranged from the positive (strongly agree) to the negative (strongly disagree).

Analysis of the questionnaire using the software SPSS should be done scale by scale and separately for preferred and actual questionnaires for Cronbach's alpha coefficient.

We applied what we learnt by having a hands-on session. Everyone completed the preffered and actual questonaaire for WIHIC (What Is Happening In This Classroom), modified the data recording template given by Dr Quek to suit the questionnaire we used and analysed the data using the software, SPSS.

Reflections
Assessing the learning environment is very important if we want pupils to maximize their learning in our classrooms. The teacher's perception of her LE may not the same as those of the pupils. The only way to determine what aspectsof the learning environment are a problem and need to be adddressed through intervention measures is by getting feedback from the pupils, either qualitatively through a questionnaire with a Likert scale or qualitatively through interviews. Usually a combination of both is needed to identify the AFIs (areas for improvement) and to have a deeper understanding why those are as are identified as AFIs. However, there are two major problems with this :
(a) the teacher needs to know how to adminster such a survey and anlyse the results
(b) the teacher must be able to accept negative feedback and use it as a learning point for improvement instead of taking it as a criticism and feel hurt and diminished.

Where analysing the data is concerned, simple statistics need be used at the teacher's level. However, it is still possible that many teachers may find it difficult to overcome the barriers of having to key in so much data as well as to do statistics (it is an inhibiting word to many non-Mathematics persons). However, I still feel that even without the Cronberg's alpha coefficeint and t tests carried out, we can still get pupils to record their answers on the optical sheet (OTAS) and use the OTAS marker to collate the data. The percentages given by the OTAS marker software can be used to determine if an item is a strength or an area for improvement if we set a target eg. 80% and above is a strength and 60% and belwo is an AFI. uing this method will save time and thus result in more teachers being inclined to assess theri learning environment. I find using the SPSS software necessary when carrying out a research project like Action research.

Not many teachers are comfortable having pupils evaluate their learning environment. This year, in my school, teachers were encouraged to use pupil evaluation as a form of professional development. However, very few teachers chose to do it and the main reason was being confortable getting eedback from students.

However, it was good to learn that there are ready-made questionnaires for different learning environments that we need only to modify them to suit our situations. We can remove certain items or add a few items without having to validate the questionnaire. This will encourage teachers t be more inlcined to use surveys to assess their learning environments.

We also looked at three case studies to determine if the school had a positive learning environment. In determining these scales, we need to keep in mind Moo's scheme : Relationships (R), Personal development (PD) and System maintenance and system change (SMSC).

Cronbach alpha reliability -

did not understand statement

interpretation of statement

may not be culturally suitable