Relationship between Constructivist Learning Environments and Educational Facility in Science Classrooms

摘要

The aims of this research are to investigate the extent of the constructivist learning environment integration in science classrooms and students’ perceptions of their actual and preferred learning environments in science learning. Additionally, this research aims to assess educational facilities in schools and identify its relationship with constructivist learning environment. Actual and preferred form of Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) and Learning Environment Assessment (LEA) were used in this research. The instruments were administered to 150 Form Four science students from 3 schools in Bidor, Perak. The data were analysed quantitatively for the research questions. The result showed that students agreed to most of the scales in actual form of CLES except the scale Shared Control in which they were not invited to share teacher's control in planning learning environment. T-test showed that students tended to prefer more constructivist learning environment than the actual learning environment (p<0.05). Besides, the result showed that subsection Academic Learning Space in LEA was at the level of minimal adequacy whereas subsection Interior Environment showed the level of moderate adequacy. Simple correlation analysis showed that LEA was positively related to actual form of CLES (r=0.22). The finding suggested that science teachers should implement the constructivist approach and improve their practice based on students’ preference of learning environment to improve students’ performances. Also, educational facilities were suggested to be assessed to ensure the success of the integration of constructivist learning environment in the science classrooms.