A Study On Assessing College English Classroom Environment

The study of classroom environment, currently representing one of the major areas of investigation in educational field, defines classroom environment in terms of the shared perceptions of the students and sometimes the teachers in that environment. Great attention has been attached to development and validation of new instruments targeting at assessing a variety of classroom environments. The present study aims at validating and using a Chinese version of the College English Classroom Environment Inventory (CECEI), in the hope that it will provide insightful references to the teaching of College English in China. The survey consisted of 809 freshmen and 17 teachers from 23 classes in six universities. The CECEI, a newly developed questionnaire was used as the instrument to measure students and teachers' perceptions of their classroom environment. Data obtained from the questionnaire were processed in SPSS 10.0. The questionnaire data were used to guide the collection of qualitative data by means of interviews and classroom observations to explain patterns and differences in mean scale scores in different subgroups. Results of the survey indicate that data analysis supported each scale's internal consistency reliability, factor structure and the ability to differentiate between classrooms, in addition, it revealed interesting differences between average scale sores in different subgroups. Compared with students, teachers perceived the classrooms more positively in almost all scales; in particular, statistically significant differences emerged in scales of Teacher Support, Involvement and Cooperation. Meanwhile, statistically significant differences were also found between students of different genders and abilities. To be specific, compared with male students, female students perceived the classroom environments more positively, and significant differences exist in scales of Student Cohesiveness, Task Orientation and Cooperation. And in contrast with top students, below average students perceived their classrooms less favorably on most scales, with significant differences were found in scales of Student Cohesiveness and Involvement. Interviews with students and instructors as well as classroom observations also provide complementary information regarding students' understanding of some items and their perceptions. The results implicate that the CECEI should be adopted to assess and improve College English teaching, to be included as a part of teacher assessment system, and to utilized for teacher education.