Validation of the Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory (CLCEI) for use in Singapore secondary schools

Abstract

The Chinese Language Classroom Environment Inventory (CLCEI) is a classroom learning environment instrument for assessing students’ and teachers’ perceptions of their Chinese Language classroom environment in Singapore secondary schools. It is a bilingual instrument with 48 items presented in both English and Chinese. The English version of the CLCEI was customised from the original English version of the ‘What is Happening in This Class?’ (WIHIC) questionnaire (Fraser, McRobbie & Fisher, 1996) and its Chinese version was modified from the Taiwanese Chinese version of the WIHIC questionnaire (Huang & Fraser, 1997) for use in Singapore Chinese Language classrooms. The CLCEI was validated using 1460 secondary three (express) Chinese Language students in Singapore. Various statistical procedures were undertaken to examine validity, reliability and the factor structure of the six 8-item scales of the CLCEI. The purpose of this paper is to describe how the CLCEI was validated and to report on the validation results. The validation results obtained were compared with that of the original WIHIC questionnaire. The outcomes of the comparisons were analysed and discussed.