A school’s physical environment plays a vital role in enhancing learning and teaching experiences. Currently, there is a growing body of literature indicating the critical impacts a school’s physical environment can effect on students and teachers. However, far too little attention has been paid to this issue, not excluding public schools in Kuwait. This research investigates the impact of the physical environment on learning and teaching behaviour, performance and outcomes in Kuwaiti intermediate public schools. It evaluates the quality of architectural characteristics of school buildings, and the classroom interior features in term of spatial, visual, acoustic, thermal and personal environmental aspects. A mixed methods approach was adopted to efficiently assess the quality of learning environments. The documented case studies consist of comprehensive figures consolidated from five public schools by three methods. A physical survey was designed to assess the condition of school buildings and classroom environments. The observation helped to measure the influence interior classroom environments exerted on students’ and teachers’ performance and behaviour. Concomitantly, a school inventory survey (questionnaires) were also designed to represent the students’, teachers’ and school administrators’ concerns and feedback regarding their school environment. In addition, a qualitative semi-structured interview was conducted with a Ministry of Education official, who generously provided further insight into the case studies’ results. Comparative analysis findings from this study indicate several contributions to the current literature. Firstly, results revealed that the effective quality of the learning environment identified a positive impact on learning and teaching performance and behaviour. Secondly, the results identified many inadequacies and weaknesses within the architectural system adopted in Kuwaiti schools. Thirdly, this study revealed that the lack of a proper protocol within the Ministry of Education in Kuwait imposed a negative influence on school design quality. The study concludes with a description of more specific outcomes pertinent to the quality of physical features, as well as recommendations for further studies towards improving the school learning environment in Kuwait.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:732197 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Ali, Mohammad A. A. H. M. |
| Publisher | Birmingham City University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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