Session 3: Assessing the Learning Environment II

Today breezes by so ever quickly! We started out with a lecture by Dr Quek on assessing the Learning environment. She stresses on the need to modify the LE instruments at times to suit our target group. For example, when sampling a group of children, having a list of 60 -90 items in the questionnaire is not practical. In such a case, each classification category should have no more than 3-5 items. For me, in the military context, the terminology used in the survey will differ from that of the "civilian" world. I will have to use a language that the servicemen can understand. Another important pointer is that each question should be short and precise and must contain only one idea. One comment that I raised in class was that in some questionnaires, the Likert scales are ambiguous and often open for interpretation. For example, the Likert scale "Almost never", "Seldom", "Often" and "Always" the degree would differ for each individual. As such, this type of scale rating should be administered only when the population sampled is huge; where any effects of the differences can be cushioned off. I preferred the more conventional “Strongly agree”, “Agree” type of five-point Likert scales where it is less ambiguous.

The highlight of the day was the case study we did on the findings by a researcher on three local schools in Singapore in her report to improve the school learning environment. From her research methodology, it was interesting to see how she uses the School Learning Environment Questionnaire (SLEQ) to collect qualitative information from the teachers and principals on the real life school learning environment in Singapore. Studying the SLEQ and their classification according to Moo’s Three Schemes, we were able to relate her findings on the positives and negatives of each school. This gave me a useful overview of how a research can be done. However, I observed and pointed out that the research was done largely based on the teachers’ perspective and as a result, the findings may be skewed. It would have been more comprehensive if the students’ perspectives were also sought.

On the technology front, we had the privilege of Mr. James Peh who shared with us great tips on how to improve our blog and how podcasts can be easily incorporated in to our blog to make learning fun and enjoyable. We were also exposed to other e-learning platforms like Wetpaint, Wordpress etc.