CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF AN INNOVATIVE CURRICULUM PROJECT IN SCIENCE-EDUCATION

A curriculum project can be positively or negatively influenced by the environment of the classroom in which it is implemented. Analysis of the perceptions of students, teachers, and external ob servers has all owed us to study the influence of classroom environment in the impleme ntation of an innovative project in science education. The main conclu sions indicate that even though the global evaluation is positive, mor e so among teachers than among students, there are differences between the perceptions of the participants, probably due to differences in i nterests and needs. Moreover, in the classroom environment, the teache r and the actual dynamic and spatial organization are of great importa nce, and it can be difficult to maintain interest or to achieve a sati sfactory evaluation on the part of those students whose academic perfo rmance is lowest. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.