Assessment of Classroom Psychosocial Environment

Book excerpt: This manual makes accessible several widely used instruments for measuring perceptions of psychosocial characteristics of classroom environment among school students and teachers. Background information, scoring procedures, validation data, and preferred and short forms of the Learning Environment Inventory, My Class Inventory, Classroom Environment Scale, and Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire are presented. An overview is given of recent science education research involving use of these instruments (e.g., studies of outcome-environment relationships, curriculum evaluations, research into differences between students and teachers in their perceptions of actual and preferred classroom environment, person-environment fit investigations of whether students achieve more in their preferred environment, and use of environment assessment as a practical basis for guiding improvements in classrooms). (Author/PN)