Changing classrooms bring new questions: environmental influences, self-efficacy, and academic achievement
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Changing classrooms bring new questions: environmental influences, self‑efficacy, and academic achievement Renae Mantooth1 · Ellen L. Usher2 · Abigail M. A. Love3 Received: 28 June 2020 / Accepted: 7 November 2020 © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract In recent years, considerable attention has been given to how the physical structure of active learning classrooms affects academic performance, but little is known about how these spaces influence learners’ personal capability beliefs. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students’ beliefs and performance varied in two physical learning environments. Students (N = 372) enrolled in an entry-level undergraduate statistics course at a large public university that was taught in either a technology-enhanced, group-configured classroom or a traditional, forward-facing lecture classroom. Using surveys administered during the first and last week of the semester, students evaluated the importance of the learning environment and their self-efficacy for regulating their learning (e.g. focus, motivation) and for doing statistics. Between-groups analyses revealed that students in the two settings rated the importance of the physical environment similarly. Self-efficacy for selfregulation decreased across the semester in both settings. Within-group analyses showed that statistics self-efficacy decreased in the technology-enhanced classroom but increased in the traditional classroom. Statistics self-efficacy significantly predicted course grades in both classroom types. The effect of classroom environment on self-efficacy was moderated by student gender. This research provides initial insights about how physical classroom environments are related to personal capability beliefs in undergraduate education. Keywords Academic performance · Active learning · Gender differences · Physical learning space · Self-efficacy · Technology-enhanced classrooms
Introduction Many college classrooms are transitioning from instructor-focused spaces to technologyfilled, dynamic environments designed to encourage active learning through collaboration (Clinton and Wilson 2019). Significant changes to physical learning spaces, in reaction to * Renae Mantooth [email protected] 1
College of Design, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA
2
College of Education, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA
3
Autism Spectrum Australia, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Learning Environments Research
shifting pedagogy that is more student-centered and collaborative, are likely to affect how students feel, think, and learn (Maxwell and Evans 2014). This hypothesis is based on Bandura’s (1986) social cognitive theory, which posits that environmental factors (e.g. classrooms, learning spaces), behavioral outcomes (e.g. academic performance), and personal characteristics (e.g. beliefs, emotions, cognition) dynamically interact through reciprocal influence. Stimuli in the physical environment inform students about what they could or should do and thus influence t
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