Teachers’ Conceptual Perceptions and Thoughts about Learning Environment

Abstract

The literature provides perspectives in relation to the links between student perceptions of learning environment and their cognitive and affective outcomes but falls short in qualitatively explaining what teachers’ perceptions are in relation to classroom learning environment and its various characteristics. Hence, this study aimed to investigate teachers’ perceptions about learning environment characteristics facilitative to students’ outcomes and their conceptualizations concerning the term “learning environment”. The study was designed as basic qualitative descriptive research and attempted to elicit qualitative data from eight social sciences teachers working at state secondary schools. The results revealed that teachers had a tendency to conceptualize learning environment as a physical construct at first. Some of them also mentioned the social and psychosocial connotations or dimensions of the term. Three group of factors in the learning environment (categorized as physical, social and classroom assessment-based) were reported to be facilitative to student outcomes by the participants of this study.