Abstract:
This paper investigates physical sciences students’ perceptions of classroom environment and
their attitude towards chemistry in South African High Schools’ in the Ximhungwe circuit of
the Bohlabela district in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa. The present paper reports
on the research findings on associations between the type of school attended by students and their perception of their chemistry classroom environment and their attitude towards
chemistry, as measured with a standardised test. A sample of 210 12th grade physical sciences
students from the ten public schools in the circuit was conveniently selected to complete a
survey on Chemistry Classroom Environment Questionnaire (CCEQ) and Attitude Towards
Chemistry Questionnaire (ATCQ). One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA)
and a follow-up between-group analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted and showed
that students in high achieving schools (HAS) had a high perception of their CCEQ inventory,
which was influenced by all the five sub-scales. Mean scores and independent samples t-tests
showed that students in both school types had a positive attitude towards chemistry.
Spearman’s Correlation revealed that there was no relationship between physical sciences
students’ perception of their classroom environment and their attitude towards chemistry in
both types of schools. The study discusses these findings and compares them to prior learning
environment studies.
