Classroom learning environment of city and kibbutz biology classrooms in israel

The Learning Environment Inventory (LEI), adapted to conditions in Israeli schools and factor analysed on an Israeli sample, was administered to 572 students in 10th-grade biology classes. Fourteen classes were in urban schools, six in Kibbutz district schools. All classes used the same BSCS (yellow version) curriculum. Seven out of the nine scales of the LEI Israeli version yielded significantly different scores for urban and Kibbutz samples indicating a more positive social learning climate in the Kibbutz than in the city. Differences were most marked on scales assessing cohesiveness, favouritism and cliquishness. Results were interpreted to indicate that social climate in classrooms is influenced by school-wide policies regarding relationships in school, and not only by within-class factors such as curriculum and teaching method.