Physical Science Students’ Perceptions of Their Chemistry Classroom Environment and the Students’ Resultant Attitudes towards Chemistry

Abstract

This paper investigates physical sciences students’ perceptions of classroom environment and their attitude towards chemistry in South African High Schools’ in the Ximhungwe circuit of the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The present paper reports on the research findings on associations between the type of school attended by students and their perception of their chemistry classroom environment and their attitude towards chemistry, as measured with a standardised test. A sample of 210 12th grade physical sciences students from the ten public schools in the circuit was conveniently selected to complete a survey on Chemistry Classroom Environment Questionnaire (CCEQ) and Attitude Towards Chemistry Questionnaire (ATCQ). One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and a follow-up between-group analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted and showed that students in high achieving schools (HAS) had a high perception of their CCEQ inventory, which was influenced by all the five sub-scales. Mean scores and independent samples t-tests showed that students in both school types had a positive attitude towards chemistry. Spearman’s Correlation revealed that there was no relationship between physical sciences students’ perception of their classroom environment and their attitude towards chemistry in both types of schools. The study discusses these findings and compares them to prior learning environment studies.