Learning Environment (Day 3)

Today, we dwelled more in depth on how to assess the learning environment. We were given case reports of School Climate surveys conducted on three neighbourhood secondary schools in Singapore. We critically examined the factors contributing to a conducive or non-conducive learning environments by making reference to the Moos' key dimensions of school environments (i.e. Relationship, Personal Growth, and Systems Maintenance and System Change), as follows:

Relationship

- Student Support. There is good rapport between teachers and students; and students behave in a responsible, self-disciplined manner.

- Affiliation. Teachers can obtain assistance, advice and encouragement; and are made to feel accepted by colleagues.

Personal Growth

- Professional Interest. Teachers discuss professional matters, show interest in their work and seek further professional development.

- Achievement Orientation. Teachers value and expect high student achievement; and competition among students is encouraged.

System Maintenance and System Change

- Staff Freedom. Teachers are free of set rules, guidelines and procedures; and free of supervision to ensure rule compliance.

- Participatory Decision Making. Teachers have the opportunity to participate in decision making.

- Innovation. The school is in favour of planned change and experimentation; and fosters individualisation.

- Resource Adequacy. Support personnel, facilities, finance, equipment and resources are suitable and adequate.

- Work Pressure. The extent to which work pressure dominates the school environment.

Lessons learnt from these case studies were:

- School Leadership (i.e. Principal). There are varying styles of management such as the Very Strict/Authoritarian, Commanding/Authoritative, Laissez Faire, or Indifferent. On one extreme, an authoritarian principal will decide on what he/she thinks is good for the school without allowing participatory decision-making by the teachers and staff. Although in most cases the teachers will deliver the results that the principal has set, they will not enjoy much satisfaction since their views are not heard and valued. On the other end, an indifferent principal allows teachers and staff total freedom to do what they want, but the school is unlikely to excel due to lack of vision and directions. A good leader should set clear directions and guidelines, and at the same time empower the teachers to make decision within the defined boundaries.

- Holistic Survey. In most School Climate surveys, the attention is usually focused on the Leadership (i.e. the principal), the students and the physical environment. This is incomplete. The teachers are directly involved in engaging the students and are responsible to "add value" to the students in term of knowledge, skills and values. Therefore, the quality of teachers should be an important aspect in the learning environment. In School Climate survey, researcher should purposefully design appropriate questionnaire to collect data on the teachers.