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The Classroom Environment Study

1980–1985 

The study was oriented towards two major aims: to describe the similarities and differences in the nature of teaching in classrooms in different countries and to identify the teaching behaviors associated with greater student achievement. Two major categories of teaching behavior were identified: management practices, intended to bring students into contact with relevant learning tasks, and instructional practices, directly influencing students’ learning process. The study was longitudinal, with student learning outcomes measured at two points in time. Both pretest and posttest were constructed nationally according to the specifications prepared by the international center. Between the pretest and the posttest, each classroom included in the study was observed from six to ten times at regular intervals. The data were collected during 1981–1983.

Target Population

In no country were probability samples of schools or classrooms selected. Across the countries, the number of schools in which the study was conducted ranged from nine to 77, and the number of classrooms ranged from 18 to 87 with three subjects represented—mathematics, science, and history. The grade levels involved ranged from Grade 5 to Grade 8.

Participating Educational Systems

Australia, Canada (Ontario and Quebec), Hungary, Israel, Korea, Netherlands, Nigeria, Thailand. The Federal Republic of Germany conducted the study two years later.

Key Findings

  1. Across countries, teachers relied heavily on whole classroom instruction. Little time was spent in small group instruction or work. With the exception of the Republic of Korea, a rather large number of the observed lessons were devoted to reviewing previously taught content and material.
  2. The opportunity to learn the content included in the posttest differed greatly within countries. Students in some classrooms were taught two or three times more of the content than were students in other classrooms. The quantity of instruction students received influenced the amount they learned. This relation was particularly strong in Australia and the Netherlands.
  3. The three most often observed classroom activities were lecturing, seatwork (either written or laboratory), and management. They accounted from one-half to more than four-fifths of all the activities observed in all countries except Hungary. In Hungary, lecturing was replaced by discourse (which occurred over 50 percent of the time). The six most often registered teacher behaviors were - explanation - explanation with materials - asking recall questions - responding to questions - attending to procedural matters - silence. They accounted for one-half to more than three-fourths of all behaviors observed in all countries except Israel.
  4. Teacher behaviors were more consistently associated with academic engagement than with final achievement. Thus, what teachers do in their classroom appears more highly related to what students do than to what they learn.
  5. Students who spent more time actively engaged in learning achieved higher posttest scores. Students’ perceptions of the task orientation of their classrooms also influenced their achievement as well as their academic engagement.
  6. Students’ initial achievement influenced their final achievement, and their initial attitudes influenced their final attitudes. Students’ home backgrounds influenced primary initial achievement and aspirations. Home background did not have a direct effect on student achievement.         

Major Publications

 

Anderson, L.W., Ryan, D.W., & Shapiro, B.J. (Eds.). (1989).

The IEA Classroom Environmental Study.

Oxford: Pergamon Press.

 

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