Abstract
The aim of this study was to grasp and understand the social-psychological mechanisms by which the classroom socioecological environment determines academic achievement. We first developed and tested a general theoretical model (on a sample of 51 classrooms containing 1123 junior high school students) which allows us to consider the classroom social climate as a dependent and independent variable. We then attempted to accurately define the influence mechanism and develop a structural model to account for the relationships and interrelationships between variables. We also tried to reach two principal goals in the psychology of learning environments: one is to determine what classroom social environments would be advantageous to students, and the other is to identify the factors that determine that climate. The results indicated a climate-dependent discrepancy between teachers’ grades and achievement test scores. They have some practical implications for optimizing the classroom social climate.
Résumé
L’objectif principal de cette étude consiste à saisir et à comprendre les mécanismes psychosociaux par lesquels l’environnement (socioécologique) de la classe détermine la performance scolaire de cette dernière. A cette fin, nous développons et testons d’abord, auprès d’un échantillon de 51 classes (comportant 1123 collégiens), un modèle théorique général qui permet de considérer le climat social de la classe en tant que variable dépendante et indépendante. Nous affinons ensuite notre analyse du mécanisme d’influence en aboutissant à un modèle structural qui permet de déterminer les relations et les articulations entre les variables. Nous tentons également d’atteindre les deux principaux objectifs de la «Psychologie des Environnements d’apprentissage»: l’un cherchant à déterminer les environnements sociaux de la classe qui profiteraient aux élèves, l’autre à identifier les facteurs constituant le climat social. Les résultats indiquent un décalage, en fonction du climat, entre deux évaluations: scolaire et pédagogique. Ils permettent également de tirer des implications pratiques pour l’optimisation du climat social de la classe
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Preparation of this article was supported by the “Institut Universitaire de Formation des Maîtres d’Orléans-Tours” and the “U.P.R.E.S. Vieillissement, rythmicité et développement des activités cognitives”, University of Tours.
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Bennacer, H. How the socioecological characteristics of the classroom affect academic achievement. Eur J Psychol Educ 15, 173–189 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173173
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173173