Student perceptions of psycho‐social environment in classrooms of exemplary science teachers

As part of a comprehensive study of exemplary science teaching, this research focused on the psycho‐social environment in classes taught by exemplary teachers. In order to interpret data, comparisons were made between the actual classroom environment of exemplary teachers and (1) the actual environment of comparison groups from past research, (2) the classroom environment preferred by exemplary teachers’ classes and (3) the actual classroom environment of non‐exemplary teachers of the same grades in the same school. It was found that exemplary science teachers’ classes can be differentiated from non‐exemplary teachers’ classes in terms of the psycho‐social environment as seen through the students’ eyes. Also, the classroom environments created by the exemplary science teachers generally were markedly more favourable than those of non‐exemplary teachers.