In recent years, the importance of the pedagogical and physical design of new learning environments has grown. Around the world, innovative pedagogy has been implemented to address, among other things, the development of social skills. In this study, we examined an educational program that is an applied example of the constructivist approach whose…

Undergraduates' first-year experience in engineering education impacts their retention and persistence. Strategic learning strategies (i.e. skill, will, and self-regulation) are important for students' academic achievement and retention. We examined to what extent (1) students' skill mediated the relationship between self-regulation and will and…

While most quality debates about undergraduate education center on topics such as test scores, learning standards, and teacher quality and retention, the environment in which students learn is often neglected. We examined the dimensions of constructivist learning environments and further tested their linkages with student learning experiences…

In this article, I report a two-year study of working closely with science teachers and examining perceptions of Year 9 (12-13 year olds) students in 13 New Zealand secondary schools. The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) was used. The questionnaire was administered to 327 students in the first year and 362 students in the second…

Moving towards Smart Learning Spaces (SLS) requires reconsideration of the school environment using a multi-dimensional approach that considers pedagogical, environmental and technological aspects. However, learning spaces have not changed that much. New designs and remodelling of educational contexts rarely are evidence-based and rarely…

The study examined the factor structure, reliability and validity of a Chinese version of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (C-CLES), an instrument for assessing students' perceptions of the extent of constructivist approaches prevalent in classrooms. A convenience sample of 967 students in Secondary Three (Grade 9) in Hong Kong…

Civic education is a moral development imperative of the Indonesian national curriculum and the United Nation's policy on education for sustainable development. It was within this context that we investigated the impact of ethical dilemma story pedagogy (EDSP) on student learning in a constructivist Indonesian STEM learning environment. EDSP uses…

The use of student-centred learning environments in education has increased. This study investigated student teachers' instructional preferences for these learning environments and how these preferences are related to their approaches to learning. Participants were professional Bachelor students in teacher education. Instructional preferences and…

Working with scientists has been suggested as an effective way for high-school students to learn authentic science. However, little research has involved students' perceptions of science learning environments in a university internship. This study drew on the theoretical framework of community of practice with cogenerative dialogues to design an…

An innovative learning environment is the current outcome of the constructivist approach, the essence of which is co-construction of knowledge in an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) environment. We examined how Israeli students perceived 10 characteristics of their classroom learning environment--student cohesiveness, teacher…

The increasing calls for diversity research signal a need to explore contemporary learning and instruction strategies that respond to diversity in courses and curricula. The major objective of this research was to measure the level of openness to diversity and challenge (ODC) among college students as a function of their perceived constructivist…

This mixed-methods cross-national study investigated the effectiveness of reality pedagogy (an approach in which teachers become part of students' activities, practices and rituals) in terms of changes in student perceptions of their learning environment and attitudes towards science. A questionnaire was administered to 142 students in grades 8-10…

The Constructivist Learning Environment Survey is an instrument used for assessing students' and teachers' perceptions of their learning environments. The Teacher Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (TCLES) was created to better enable teachers and researchers to determine teachers' perception of their use of constructivist approaches in…

We investigated and compared the learning environment perceptions of students, teachers and guides who participated in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-based outreach activities in secondary education. In outreach activities, schools and teachers work together with companies and other external institutions in learning…

This article reports the validation and application of an English language teacher education (LTE) version of the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). The instrument, called the CLES-LTE, was field tested with a sample of 622 Iranian English language student teachers in 28 classes. When principal components analysis led to the…