Assessing Students’ Perceptions of their Chemistry Laboratory Classroom Learning Environments and their Science Attitudes in Upper Secondary School Classes in Thailand

Abstract

Using the 35-item Chemistry Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI) which examines in five scales, namely; Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Rule Clarity and Material Environment scales. To investigate students’ perceptions consisted of 58 students in 2 classes in Mahawichakul School at the 11^th grade level in Thailand. Students’ perceptions of their chemistry attitudes were assessed with the Test of Chemistry-Related Attitude (TOCRA). These actual and preferred perceptions of chemistry laboratory classroom environments and their attitudes toward chemistry were associated. It has found that students’ perceptions of their actual and preferred chemistry classroom learning environments were also found, significantly. Research instruments with Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients for the scales were reliable, while confirmatory. The efficiency predictive value (R²) is significant for the CLEI and considered association with the TOCRA, and value indicates that 47% and 68% for the actual and preferred forms of the variance in students’ attitudes are provided.