Depicting Chemistry Teachers’ Perception of Laboratory Environment and Teaching Satisfaction

Abstract

The design of laboratories in many schools does not meet the pedagogical needs of laboratories. Traditional learning methods not only dominate the learning process in the classroom but also practical learning activities. This study aims (1) to depict perceptions on psychosocial aspects that include student cohesiveness, open-endedness, classroom integration, rule clarity, and material environment; (2) to uncover the relationship between laboratory learning environments and the chemistry teachers’ satisfaction of teaching. The research method used a case study. It was carried out on a group of teachers who are members of a working group of high school chemistry teachers in the Jepara Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia. The sampling method is convenience sampling. The sample used was teachers who were members of a working group of teachers who were active in the study area. The sample consisted of twenty-six chemistry subject teachers consisting of 9 males and 17 females. The research instrument is a questionnaire that includes three parts. Perceptions of expectations and reality are measured through items that include teaching satisfaction and psychosocial aspects which consist of (1) Student Cohesiveness (SC); (2) Open-endedness (OE); (3) Classroom Integration (CI); (4) Rule Clarity (RC); (5) Material Environment (ME). The conditions of perception of expectations and reality have been described by a significant decrease in four scales, namely SC, OE, RC, and ME. The four scale laboratory environments have a significant correlation with teacher satisfaction in teaching chemistry in the laboratory. The aspect of CI did not experience a significant decrease and did not provide a significant correlation with teacher’s teaching satisfaction. Correlation analysis shows that teachers’ satisfaction in teaching is significantly influenced by the learning environment (83.2%), in this case, the greatest influence in the sequence is the rule clarity (83.9%), student cohesiveness (70.3%), material environment (69.8%), open-endedness (65.5%), and classroom integration (38.0%).