Classroom climate and students' goal structures in high-school biology classrooms in Kenya

摘要

This study examined classroom climate and student goal structures in high-school biology classrooms in Kenya. Participants included 891 students and their teachers in Grades 10 and 11 from two same-sex boarding schools-one for boys and the other for girls. School differences were found on all classroom climate aspects except teacher support and competition. Relative to tenth graders, eleventh graders perceived their classrooms to be higher in teacher support, task focus, competition, rule strictness, and innovation. There were school and grade differences in students' goal structures, with School 1 students, relative to School 2 students, perceiving more personal performance-approach goals and their teachers as encouraging performance-approach goals. Eleventh graders reported more performance-approach goals at both the personal and teacher levels. Teachers perceived their classroom climates more positively than their students. Observation data provides interpretative information.