Psychosocial environment of agricultural science classrooms in Nigeria

Abstract

This article reports the first classroom environment study worldwide specifically in agricultural science classes and one of the few learning environment studies in Nigeria. The sample consisted of 1 175 students in 50 classes in 20 schools in eight states and the federal capital. First, Nigerian agricultural science classrooms were perceived by students to have particularly low levels of student centredness and negotiation. Second, a new classroom environment instrument displayed satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity with both the individual student and the class mean as the unit of analysis; it also differentiated between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Third, past research was replicated in that associations between student outcomes (attitudes and enquiry skills) and classroom environment were established.