Abstract
We report research into associations between the school-level and classroom-level environment in science classrooms in South Africa. An instrument, developed to assess students’ perceptions of their classroom learning environment as a means of monitoring and guiding changes towards outcomes-based education, was administered to 2,638 Grade 8 science students from 50 classes in 50 secondary schools in Limpopo province. In addition, the teachers of each of the 50 classes responded to a questionnaire developed to assess factors in the school-level environment (such as the adequacy of resources, parental involvement and collegiality). The data collected using the two questionnaires were analysed to examine whether the environment created at the school level was linked to the likelihood of teachers successfully implementing outcomes-based education at the classroom level. Keywords: classroom-level environment; learning environment; outcomes- based education; school-level environment; science education; South Africa
Highlights
In countries around the world, there has been much attention given to the benefits and problems related to outcomes-based education (OBE)
The results of the analysis suggest satisfactory reliability and validity for this version of the SLEQ-SA when used with science teachers in South Africa
The results suggest that schools in which teachers were encouraged to be more innovative had classroom environments that emphasised involvement/investigation, cooperation, equity, differentiation, and responsibility for learning
Summary
In countries around the world, there has been much attention given to the benefits and problems related to outcomes-based education (OBE). Development and validation of questionnaires In our study, we collected classroom-level environment data from 2,638 Grade 8 science students from 50 classes in 50 secondary schools in Limpopo province, South Africa, to coincide with the first implementation of an outcomes-based curriculum in the secondary phase.) In addition, the 50 science teachers of each of these classes responded to a school-level environment questionnaire. Using OBLEQ data collected from 2,638 students in 50 classes, we conducted principal axis factoring followed by oblique (direct oblimin) rotation (selected because the factors in the set of learning environment scales are expected to be correlated, Coakes & Steede, 2000) At this stage, items were omitted and the two scales of Investigation and Involvement came together, suggesting that this sample of students regarded these two constructs in similar ways.
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