Accommodating and Validating a Measure of Learning Environments to Teacher Training Programs

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Education Research Frontier December 2015, Volume 5, Issue 4, PP. 113-121

Accommodating and Validating a Measure of Learning Environments to Teacher Training Programs Bing Li College of International Studies, Southwest University, Chongqing, 400715, China

Abstract The principal objective of the present research was to accommodate and validate an instrument of learning environments to the context of teacher training programs. To this end, the 32-item Inventory for Students’ Perceived Learning Environment (ISPLE) was adopted and adapted in a series of three studies with three independent samples (Year 2-Year 4 prospective teachers) from a teachers’ university in Mainland China. Based on the findings from both exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, modifications were executed on the ISPLE, resulting in a shortened 28-item factor solution. Reports of psychometric properties evidenced that the accommodated ISPLE is an adequate measure to capture prospective teachers’ perceptions of their learning environments. Implications for future studies are also talked about. Key Words: ISPLE; Teacher Training Programs; Modifications

1 INTRODUCTION Approximately, an average of 20,000 hours is spent in classrooms before students graduate from university (Fraser, 2001, 2012). Such is likewise the case of prospective teachers undergoing their teacher training programs. Concerns over learning environments of teacher training programs are hence necessitated. Also as documented, learning environments, among the rest, is of central importance for teacher identity development, simply because it is where prospective teachers learn to become teachers (Ottesen, 2006). For years, the idea of constructing appropriate learning environments for university-based teacher training programs has been practiced (Roberts & Graham, 2008). Notwithstanding the importance of learning environments attached to teacher training programs, there is still a lack of effective measure. The present research thus is intended to accommodate and validate a measure of general learning environments to teacher training programs. To this end, a series of three studies were conducted with three independent samples in Mainland China. Multiple methods of validation were employed, resulting in a comprehensive and reliable measure of learning environments of teacher training programs.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW Learning environments are generally conceived as “the social, psychological and pedagogical contexts in which learning occurs and which affect student achievement and attitudes” (Fraser, 1998, p. 3). Broadly speaking, on-or off-campus contexts constitute learning environments, such as school, home, museums, TV, internship units, and fieldwork trips. In a narrow sense, learning environments are meant to only consist of classroom-level and schoollevel environment. For university-based teacher training programs, the major social function is supposedly “not only in enhancing the quality of practitioners in teaching, but also in contributing to the development of the public status of the occupation of teaching” (Sockett, 2008, p. 45). However, teacher training programs have been widely criticized for the “weak connection between theory and practice” and “little attention to the social and cultural context of schooling” (Lauriala, 2000, p. 45). In this case, it is in the interest of the present research to only look at the university-based learning environments (school-level and classroom-level) where teacher training programs are going on. - 113 www.erfrontier.org


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