Science Laboratory Classroom Climate in British Schools and Universities

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Abstract Because existing classroom environment instruments are unsuitable for science laboratory classes, we developed and validated a new instrument specifically suited to laboratory classrooms at either the upper secondary school or higher education level. The Science Laboratory Environment Inventory assesses students’ or teachers’ perceptions of five dimensions of actual or preferred classroom environment, namely, student cohesiveness, open‐endedness, integration, rule clarity, and material environment. A distinctive feature of the study was that the instrument was field tested cross‐nationally and validated in six different countries, namely, England, Canada, Australia, USA, Israel, and Nigeria. The total sample consisted of 5447 students in 269 individual science laboratory classes. Various analyses attested to each scale's internal consistency reliability, discriminant validity, factorial validity, predictive validity, and ability to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different cl...