A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR LEARNING ENVIRONMENT AT TWO MALAYSIAN COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Abstract

The primary aim of this study was to compare automotive engineering students’ perceived learning environments in two Malaysian community colleges that used the same syllabus.  A modified version of the 50-item Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) was used to elicit responses from 57 male student respondents. The DREEM inventory had five domains related to students’ perceptions about the learning environment (perception of learning, perception of teachers, academic self-perception perception of atmosphere and social self-perception). Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program (SPSS) for windows version 20. The overall mean score of each of the five domains and the mean score of each individual item in the DREEM inventory were calculated and compared. The t-test was used to determine statistically significant differences between the colleges. The total DREEM mean scores showed that in general the students had a positive perception regarding their learning environments. The study however found two areas of concern that needed immediate remedial actions: i) the perceptions that the teachings over-emphasized factual learning and ii) the teachings were too teacher-centered. Findings also revealed that there was not a significant difference in the DREEM total mean score between the two colleges. This study has shown that a modified DREEM inventory is suitable for use with engineering students. Findings from these studies would help the college management to enhance the students’ learning environment.