Journal of the Korean Institute of Educational Facilities (교육시설 논문지)

Korean Institute of Educational Facilities (한국교육시설학회)
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A Study on the Elementary School Teachers' Perceptions of Classroom Environments

초등학교 교사의 교실환경 인식에 관한 연구

  • Received : 2013.09.30
  • Accepted : 2013.11.20
  • Published : 2013.11.30
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Abstract

This study aimed to identify elementary school teachers' perceptions of various aspects of physical environments of a classroom. For the purpose, a survey questionnaire was administered to 982 classroom teachers(female 82.2%) working at 67 elementary schools(Seoul 55%) located in Seoul and Busan. According to the analyses of the survey data, 50.8% of the respondent teachers suggested 20-25 as an optimum class size. Also, 57% of the teachers were positive about the current size of a classroom($67.5m^2$), but evaluations of a classroom size were divided between the teachers who had more and less than 30 students in class. Furthermore, three factors, labelled as 'uniqueness', 'residential stability' and 'visually pleasing', were extracted from a factor analysis of the Semantic Differential Scale consisting of 24 adjectives evaluating a classroom environment. Teachers from Busan tended to rate higher in the uniqueness domain while female teachers scored higher in the domain of residential stability, respectively, compared to their counterparts. Overall, the teachers perceived their classrooms having no particular characteristics, but rated highly in terms of stability. In addition, it was found out that the teachers' requests for the improvement of a classroom environment were not so much as the increased size of a classroom as a reduced class size as well as educational facilities that are corresponding to a variety of instructional methods. In summary, this study confirmed that elementary school teachers' perceptions of a classroom environment varied according to such factors as sex, teaching career, grade of their concerned class, and class size.

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