Measuring the Effects of Socio-Cultural Factors in Non-Western Science Classrooms

by

Abstract

A survey of the science education literature indicates that a considerable amount of evidence abounds which suggests that learning outcome variance contributes a lot to the teaching-learning environment of a school. This has necessitated the move amongst researchers towards the detailed study of classroom climate which affect cognitive and affective outcomes of students’ learning in science. Several classroom climate variables which relate positively to students’ achievement have been identified. These variables include task orientation, order and organisation, teacher support, instructional strategies, teacher control and innovation. In spite of all of these research efforts, the socio-cultural aspect of the classroom environment has surprisingly not received as much attention as it deserves from investigators. A pragmatic way to begin the empirical study of socio-cultural influence in science classrooms is the search for an instrument which can be used to identify the socio-cultural influences and their effects. One major purpose of this study, therefore, was to develop an instrument which is reliable and useful in measuring socio-cultural factors in science classrooms. A second major purpose was to use the instrument to measure the socio-cultural factors which affect the teaching and learning of school science. In this study, an instrument for measurement, the "Socio-Cultural Environment Scale" (SCES), was developed and used to measure those elements of the socio-cultural environment which significantly affect pupils’ learning within science classrooms. Science teachers need to be made aware of these socio-cultural elements so that appropriate intervention strategies may be developed to reduce anxiety of students for science. Further research is recommended in order to validate or revise the SCES with the ultimate objective of getting the best measure of the socio-cultural environment in science classes.