Classroom learning environment and student achievement in an enlisted professional military education environment

This study examined the difference in academic performance between two groups of enlisted Professional Military Education (PME) students attending the Noncommissioned Officer Academy (NCOA). One group consisted of students who perceived their actual learning environment to be very similar (congruent) to their ideal learning environment. The other group consisted of students who perceived their actual learning environment to be very dissimilar (divergent) to their ideal learning environment. In addition age and gender differences were compared for both groups. The subjects of this study were initially 74 enlisted Air Force sergeants. Each participant completed the Ideal and Actual Versions of the Adult Classroom Environment Scale (ACES) as well as a pre-test and four evaluations. These four evaluations corresponded to the pre-test and served in combination as a post-test. The difference in the ACES Ideal and Actual version total scores was used to establish one group of students who perceived their learning environment as congruent (n=27) and another group who perceived their learning environment as divergent (n=18). Students whose score difference was a half standard deviation more or less on either side of the mean were not used for the purposes of this study (n=29). To compare the academic performance of the congruent and divergent groups and because there was a significant difference in pre-test results between these two groups/ an analysis of covariance was used. The results revealed that there was no significant difference in the academic performance of students who viewed their learning environment as congruent when compared with the performance of their counterparts who viewed their environment as divergent. In addition age and gender were not significantly different for either group. Conclusions drawn from such a small sample size seem precarious at best/ but the fact that both groups' academic performance was nearly identical may be attributed to the educational process employed at the Professional Military Education Center. This process involves a criterion referenced approach with a dedicated instructor staff. It is suggested that this study be replicated using a larger sample size and a different educational setting in which perhaps a criterion-referenced approach is not used.