What an Ugly Classroom: Will It Affect Student Learning Outcomes?
Abstract
This study is concerned with the classroom environment, as it pertains to students’ perceptions of their learning space. With recent trends toward “doing more with less”, many colleges have been forced to increase class size, decrease spending for classroom equipment, and possibly utilize nontraditional classroom spaces for teaching. Therefore, it seems imperative to investigate how these decisions might impact learning overall. The purpose of this research study is twofold: 1) as there are a limited number of studies that cover specifically classroom structure in a college classroom, this study attempts to develop an instrument that might be used to collect data concerning students’ perceptions of the physical classroom environment; 2) this study surveyed students in a variety of classrooms to determine if they felt the classroom environment affected their ability to learn in that space. This ongoing study surveyed students on a Likert-type scale in over 20 classroom spaces across a mid-sized public university in the Appalachian region of the United States. The mission of this presentation is to present preliminary empirical findings from year one of the study, to generate further discussion about student perceptions of their classroom environment, and to promote the advancement of study in this area.
Location
Room 2005
Recommended Citation
Adams, Erin E.; Sigler, Ellen; Worley, David; and Scales, David, "What an Ugly Classroom: Will It Affect Student Learning Outcomes?" (2014). SoTL Commons Conference. 47.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2014/47
What an Ugly Classroom: Will It Affect Student Learning Outcomes?
Room 2005
This study is concerned with the classroom environment, as it pertains to students’ perceptions of their learning space. With recent trends toward “doing more with less”, many colleges have been forced to increase class size, decrease spending for classroom equipment, and possibly utilize nontraditional classroom spaces for teaching. Therefore, it seems imperative to investigate how these decisions might impact learning overall. The purpose of this research study is twofold: 1) as there are a limited number of studies that cover specifically classroom structure in a college classroom, this study attempts to develop an instrument that might be used to collect data concerning students’ perceptions of the physical classroom environment; 2) this study surveyed students in a variety of classrooms to determine if they felt the classroom environment affected their ability to learn in that space. This ongoing study surveyed students on a Likert-type scale in over 20 classroom spaces across a mid-sized public university in the Appalachian region of the United States. The mission of this presentation is to present preliminary empirical findings from year one of the study, to generate further discussion about student perceptions of their classroom environment, and to promote the advancement of study in this area.
