Development, validation and use of a questionnaire to assess students' perceptions of outcomes-focused, technology-rich learning environments

This study involved the development and validation of a widely-applicable and distinctive questionnaire for assessing students’ perceptions of their actual and preferred classroom learning environments in outcomes-focused, technology-rich learning settings. The development and validation of the questionnaire involved (1) interviews with students, teachers and ICT industry personnel to ensure that dimensions were salient, (2) ensuring consistency with Moos’ scheme for classifying the dimensions of any human environment into ‘relationship’, ‘personal development’ and ‘system maintenance and change’ dimensions, (3) adopting and adapting scales and items from widely-used general classroom environment questionnaires, (4) field testing the instrument with students and interviewing them about their responses and (5) conducting various statistical analyses (e.g., exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and item analysis) to refine the scales and furnish validity and reliability information. The data provided evidence for the validity and reliability of the questionnaire for use at the senior high school level across a number of different subjects. Also, the data were analysed to (a) determine whether associations exist between students’ perceptions of the learning environment and their attitude towards the subject, attitudes toward computer usage and academic efficacy and (b) to determine whether differences exist between the learning environments perceived and preferred by boys and girls.