Learning Environment: What are the University Students’ Perceptions?

Abstract

Research worldwide continues to prove that the quality of the learning environment is very important in determining learning success. This study replicated the study by Hassan, Majid & Hassan (2020). A quantitative survey was distributed using Google Forms. The survey has 5 sections with a demographic profile and 30 items using a 5-Likert scale. In the context of this study, the university students are exposed to four basic types of learning environments, which are learner-centred environment, community-centred environment, assessment-centred environment and knowledge-centred environment. Questionnaires were answered by 102 students from three levels of Japanese language studies in a public university in Malaysia. Findings revealed that the students' perceptions of the learning environment were positive. The findings also showed that all four approaches; learner-centred, community-centred, assessment-centred and knowledge-centred are significant and influenced the learning environment. The learner-centred approach has the highest mean scores, which indicates that the students feel comfortable in this learning environment where they are allowed to have their own language practices. The results also showed that there are strong positive relationships between learner and community-centred, learner and assessment-centred, learner and knowledge-centred, knowledge and community-centred, knowledge and assessment-centred, and assessment and community-centred.