Classroom Environment Instruments: Development, Validity and Applications

Few fields of educational research have such a rich diversity of valid, economical and widely-applicable assessment instruments as does the field of learning environments. This article describes nine major questionnaires for assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment (the Learning Environment Inventory, Classroom Environment Scale, Individualised Classroom Environment Questionnaire, My Class Inventory, College and University Classroom Environment Inventory, Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction, Science Laboratory Environment Inventory, Constructivist Learning Environment Survey and What Is Happening In This Class) and reviews the application of these instruments in 12 lines of past research (focusing on associations between outcomes and environment, evaluating educational innovation, differences between student and teacher perceptions, whether students achieve better in their preferred environment, teachers' use of learning environment perceptions in guiding improvements in classrooms, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, links between different educational environments, cross-national studies, the transition from primary to high school, and incorporating educational environment ideas into school psychology, teacher education and teacher assessment).

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