Session 2: Assessing the Learning Environment

It will be a disaster for a trainer to walk into a class, teach and then expect his trainees to absorb all the learning without first scanning through the class environment to access whether the conditions of the class is suitable for lesson delivery to take place. Apart from assessing the physical environment such as lighting of the classroom, ventilation, space for movement etc, it is also important to assess the students' concentration, behavior towards each other and even the trainer's mode of delivery and the types of activities conducted. From today's lesson, I'm exposed to the different tools available in assessing LE. I also understand the need to assess the learning environment, to address any gaps, so as to maximise pupils' learning.

I was introduced to the trail blazers in the field of LE who includes Rudolf Moo, Henry Murray, Barry Fraser and Kurt Lewin amongst others.

• Moo proposed that LE can be described in three dimensions namely, the relationship, the personal development and the system maintenance and change dimensions which can be further broken down into 10 different aspects of LE which are used to analyze students evaluation of LE.

• Murray developed a theory based on a need-press model that shows the representation of a person and environment. He argued that environmental forces may exerts a force on us that forces us to act. The real environment forces are referred to as "alpha press" and the perceived ones are "beta press"

• Lewin's formula states that a person’s behavior is related both to his characteristics and to the social situation in which he finds himself. Therefore, Behaviour is defined as a function of person and environment (B-f{P, E}).

• Fraser suggest that congruence between actual and preferred environment is assessed and related to student.

Today, we learned an array of instruments that may be used to assess LE. These include:

• Learning Environment Inventory - LEI (Fraser, Anderson & Walberg)
• Classroom Environment Scale - CES (Rudolf Moos)
• Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire (ICEQ) (Fraser)
• My Class Inventory (MCI)
• College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI)
• Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI)
• Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI)
• Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES)
• What Is Happening In This Class (WIHIC) Questionnaire

The instrument that caught my attention was the "WIHIC". It has a "Preferred form" - used for assessing a student’s personal perceptions of his role in the classroom and "Actual" form - used for assessing students' perceptions of the class as a whole. I commented that some questions has "foregone" answers and wondered aloud why they should be asked? For example, a statement like "I would cooperate with other students in the course" would solicit a positive reply, so why ask? I was told however that these questions are still applicable as they reflects what the student's preference was and it would be measured against the "actual" conditions in the class. The variance would be something that trainers ought to focus on to improve the LE.

Another thing I learned on the technology front was how documents can be easily shared on the google shared document site. This is interesting as it means one do no need to physically meet and yet still can work on files together. Wow!