My Class Activities (MCA) 

 

Based on the information contained in the review of the literature related to the importance of Interest, Challenge, Choice, and Enjoyment as constructs central to learning, the survey, My Class Activities was piloted, studied, and developed as an effective means to assess students' attitudes toward their classrooms regarding these dimensions.  It is designed specifically for students in grades three through eight, and is comprised of four scales, Interest, Challenge, Choice, and Enjoyment operationally defined as follows:

 

1. Interest:  Reflects positive feelings, a preference for certain topics, subject areas, or activities.

2. Challenge:  Engages the student and requires extra effort.

3. Choice:  Gives the student the right or power to select educational options and direct his/her own learning.

4. Enjoyment:  Provides the student with pleasure and satisfaction (Gentry, Gable & Springer, 2000). 

 

Because the activities that occur in classrooms occur at different times and different rates depending on the curriculum, instruction, teacher, learner and other variables, a Likert-type frequency repsonse format ranging from never to always (1=never, 2=seldom, 3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always) was selected to assess students perceptions of each dimension.  Students respond to each of the 31 items by indicating how frequently they perceive it occurs in their classrooms.  High degrees of student perceived Interest, Challenge, Choice, or Enjoyment in classrooms are reflected by high scores, whereas low degrees of the same are reflected by low scores.  For example, an average score of 4.5 on Challenge would indicate that students perceived their class activities more than often engaging and requiring extra efforts from them, whereas an average score of 1.0 on Enjoyment would indicate that students never found their class pleasurable or satisfying.

 

Although the dimensions of Interest, Challenge, Choice, and Enjoyment are moderately related, they provide the most information to the user about the nature of the classroom and student perceptions when considered separately.  A single, total, score on the survey would reflect an overall level of satisfaction with school, but might be so broad that its meaning would be lost.

 

Resources 

Pereira, N., Peters, S. J., & Gentry, M. (2010). The My Class Activities instrument as used in Saturday enrichment program evaluation. Journal of Advanced Academics, 21, 568-593.

 

Gentry, M., & Gable, R. K. (2001). From the Student's Perspective - My Class Activities: An Instrument for Use in Research and Evaluation. Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 24(4), 322-343.

 

 

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