Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools

  • Published:
Research in Science Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Much Catholic school and church rhetoric suggests that Catholic schools possess distinctive learning environments. Research into this aspect of Catholic schooling has been hampered by the lack of an appropriate assessment instrument. By drawing on contemporary church literature, the perceptions of personnel involved in Catholic education and existing classroom environment questionnaires, a new instrument was developed to assess student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment in Catholic schools. The use of this instrument in 64 classrooms in Catholic and Government schools indicated significant differences on some scales. The distinctive nature of Catholic schooling did not extend to all classroom environment dimensions deemed important to Catholic education.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abbott, W.M. (1966).The documents of Vatican II. London: Geoffrey Chapman.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bathersby, J. (1992).The Catholic school: Creating the future together, Pastoral letter for Catholic Education Sunday. Brisbane.

  • Chavez, R.C. (1984). The use of high, inference measures to study classroom environments: A review.Review of Educational Research, 54, 237–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1975).Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, B.J. (1986).Classroom environment. London: Croom Helm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, B.J. (1990).Individualised classroom environment questionnaire. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, B.J. (1991). Two decades of classroom environment research. In B.J. Fraser & H.J. Walberg (Eds.),Educational environments: Evaluation, antecedents and consequences. London: Pergamon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fraser, B.J. (in press). Context: classroom and school climate. In D. Gabel (Ed.),Handbook of research on science teaching and learning. New York: Macmillan.

  • Fraser, B.J., Anderson, G.J., & Walberg H.J. (1982).Assessment of learning environments: Manual for Learning Environment Inventory (LEI) and My Class Inventory (MCI) (3rd version). Perth: Western Australian Institute of Technology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genn, J.M. (1984). Research into the climates of Australian schools, colleges and universities: Contributions and potential of need-press theory.Australian Journal of Education, 28, 227–248.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geoghegan, P.B. (1860).Pastoral letter to the clergy and the laity of the diocese on the education of Catholic children. Adelaide: G. Dehane.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, K. (1936).Principles of topological psychology, New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moos, R.H. (1979).Evaluating educational environments: Procedures, measures, findings and policy implications. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moos, R.H. & Trickett, E.J. (1987).Classroom environment scale manual (2nd ed.). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Provincial Synod. (1862).Pastoral letter of the Most Reverend the Archbishop and the Right Reverend the Bishops of the province of Australia, in Council Assembled, 1 November 1862. Melbourne: Wilson and Mackinnon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Provincial Synod. (1869, May 8). Pastoral letter of the Archbishop and the Right Reverend the Bishops of the Province, assembled in the Second Provincial Council of Australia.Advocate, Supplement.

  • Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. (1977).The Catholic school. Homebush: St Paul Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sirotnik, K.A. (1980). Psychometric, implications of the unit-of-analysis problem (with examples from the measurement of organisational climate).Journal of Educational Measurement, 17, 245–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Australian Catholic University, P.O. Box 247, 4053, Everton Park, Q

    Jeffrey P. Dorman (Lecturer)

  2. Centre for Mathematics and Science Education, Queensland University of Technology, Locked Bag 2, 4059, Red Hill, Q

    Campbell J. McRobbie (Acting Director)

  3. Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University of Technology, G.P.O. Box U 1987, 6001, Perth, WA

    Barry J. Fraser (Professor of Education, Director)

Authors
  1. Jeffrey P. Dorman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Campbell J. McRobbie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Barry J. Fraser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Specializations: Catholic education, learning environments.

Specializations: conceptual change in students, science teacher professional development, scientific reasoning, learning environments.

Specializations: learning environments, science education, educational evaluation, curriculum.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dorman, J.P., McRobbie, C.J. & Fraser, B.J. Assessing the psychosocial environment of science classes in Catholic secondary schools. Research in Science Education 23, 61–67 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02357045

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02357045

Keywords

Search

Navigation