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Charting of: Allodi, M. W. (2007). Assessing the quality of learning environments in Swedish

Allodi, M. W. (2007). Assessing the quality of learning environments in Swedish
schools: Development and analysis of a theory-based instrument. Learning Environment Research. 10:157 – 175.

Purpose was to:
1) To illustrate from the students` perspectives, the development of a theory based instrument for assessing goals, values and attitudes as perceived in educational settings.
The Goals, Attitudes and Values in School (GAVIS) instrument
2) To analyse the results of a questionnaire in order to test how the data fitted the hypothesized model and other alternative models.

Sampling:
686 students in 42 classes in 17 schools in 7 Swedish municipalities predominantly in Greater Stockholm County. %61 were attending compulsory school and 125 secondary schools. Among the former, there were 72 students in 10 special –education set-up

Methodology/data collection procedure
The Goals, Attitudes, Values in School (GAVIS) Questionnaires were administered, data was analysed using confirmatory factor analysis, an application of structural equation modeling. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to confirm relationship between the items in the questionnaire as observed variables and the latent variables hypothesized: 1.Creativity, 2.Stimulation 3.Achievement, 4. Efficacy, 5. Safety, 6. Control, 7.Helpfulness, 8.Participation, 9.Responsibility, 10.Influence.

Findings
The reliability coefficients were good or satisfactory for all the scales, except for the factor Creativity, which had a lower measure than the other scales. Achievement, Stimulation and Participation had the highest mean scores, while Creativity, and Safety had the lowest means.
The variables hypothesized were confirmed by the analysis presented in this study, However, the existence of a circumplex structure between the variables was not confirmed.


Implications
The constructs 2-10 can be considered to describe related but distinct features of the educational learning environment as perceived by students.
The construct Creativity needs to be improved.
Even though the circumplex structure was not confirmed, the factors showed relatively goodness of fit and were statistically significant, therefore they can be used to assess learning environments.
The GAVIS questionnaire can be useful to teachers and special educators wishing to assess and evaluate the quality of their educational environments as perceived by their students and to identify strengths and weaknesses in their classroom climates.


Reflections
This study described the theoretical framework of the GAVIS questionnaire well. The GAVIS questionnaire was a combination of theories on learning environments, universal values and students` experiences with learning environments.

What is the theoretical framework of Walberg`s Learning Environment Inventory?

In our last session, I was wondering about the theoretical framework that supported both the instruments (CES and LEI) in the journal articles presented by MEM 858 (Groups 1 and 2). In Walker`s (2004) article, Walker quotes Moos (1979, p.138), that the early classroom learning inventories, before the Classroom Environmental Scale (CES) was introduced, “lacked the guidance of theoretical frameworks producing isolated findings that are difficult to organize into a coherent body of knowledge about classroom functioning”. According to Walker, after the introduction of the CES, and all the other classroom environment instruments thereafter, the framework used was of the common beta press and alpha press along with Moos` framework (1974) of dimensions of environment of Systems Maintenance and Change, Relationship, Personal Relevance. This provided the framework when studying the psychosocial environment in the educational set-up.