Classroom Environments and Students' Attitudes to Science at the Senior Secondary and Tertiary Levels.

The purpose of this study was to modify and validate a new form of the Colleges and Universities Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), and to then use it to compare students' actual and preferred perceptions of their classroom learning environments at the senior and tertiary levels of education. The study also examined the attitudes of 504 students towards their science courses. The reliabilities of the modified CUCEI scales were satisfactory. Sizeable relationships were found between students' perceptions of their learning environment and attitudinal outcomes. When the two levels were compared, students at the tertiary level ad a less favorable perception of the learning environment. However, when attitudes were compared students at the tertiary level preferred a more positive attitude in terms of the satisfaction with courses they were taking and the level of difficulty. There was no difference in their attitude to speed delivery of science courses. (Author)