Differences Between Students' and Instructors' Perceptions of Actual and Preferred Classroom Environment in Higher Education

Abstract

The College and University Classroom Environment Inventory was developed for assessing higher education students' or instructors' perceptions of the following seven dimensions of actual or preferred classroom psychosocial environment: personalisation, involvement, student cohesiveness, satisfaction, task orientation, innovation and individualisation. Each scale displayed satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity for use in its actual and preferred forms with either perceptions of students in different classes. Use of the instrument in a study in 20 higher education classes revealed that, first, both students and instructors preferred a more favourable classroom environment than the one actually present and, second, instructors perceived the environment of their classes more positively than did their students in the same classrooms.