Identifying exemplary science teachers through students' perceptions of their learning environment

Article

Waldrip, Bruce, Fisher, Darrell L. and Dorman, Jeff. 2009. "Identifying exemplary science teachers through students' perceptions of their learning environment." Learning Environments Research. 12 (1), pp. 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-008-9049-0
Article Title

Identifying exemplary science teachers through students' perceptions of their learning environment

ERA Journal ID20755
Article CategoryArticle
AuthorsWaldrip, Bruce (Author), Fisher, Darrell L. (Author) and Dorman, Jeff (Author)
Journal TitleLearning Environments Research
Journal Citation12 (1), pp. 1-13
Number of Pages13
Year2009
Place of PublicationDordrecht, The Netherlands
ISSN1387-1579
1573-1855
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-008-9049-0
Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine students' psychosocial perceptions of their science classroom learning environment in order to identity exemplary teachers. This mixed-method study used the valid and reliable questionnaire, What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC), with over 3,000 middle school students in 150 classrooms in Australia. Exemplary teachers were defined as those whose students' perceptions were more than one standard deviation above the mean on three of the five scales of Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation, and Equity. The reliability of the WIHIC scales ranged from 0.75-0.87. Eta2 showed that the WIHIC was able to distinguish between perceptions of the students in the classroom. This factor was used to identify exemplary teachers. The construct validity of the WIHIC to identify these exemplary teachers was confirmed through interviews with students and these views are reported in the article.

Keywordslearning environment, science secondary, primary science, elementary teacher perceptions
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020390307. Teacher education and professional development of educators
390113. Science, technology and engineering curriculum and pedagogy
390409. Learning sciences
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Byline AffiliationsMonash University
Curtin University of Technology
Australian Catholic University
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https://research.usq.edu.au/item/9ywxv/identifying-exemplary-science-teachers-through-students-perceptions-of-their-learning-environment

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