The nature of Chinese Language classroom learning environments in Singapore secondary schools

This article reports findings from a classroom environment study which was designed to investigate the nature of Chinese Language classroom environments in Singapore secondary schools. We used a perceptual instrument, the Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory, to investigate teachers’ and students’ perceptions towards their Chinese Language classroom learning environments using six dimensions, namely, Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Cooperation, Task Orientation and Equity. The investigation was carried out using a sample of 1,460 secondary three (Grade 9) students from 50 Chinese Language classes in 25 Singapore government secondary schools. The nature of the Chinese Language classroom learning environments was interpreted from analyses of the perception scores obtained, as well as from various comparisons of the perception scores between different groups. Although both the Chinese Language teachers and students perceived their present classroom learning environments positively, they would like improvements in all the six dimensions of the classroom learning environments under investigation. Also teachers perceived a more positive classroom learning environment than their students in the same class. In addition, female students perceived their actual and preferred classroom environments more positively than their male counterparts.