Students' Perspectives on Learning Environments: Factors Affecting Their Satisfaction and Emotions in School

Children spend most of their waking time in school; therefore, experience in school is a major domain in the life of children. Aside from academic achievement as one of the indicator of school effectiveness, students’ affective status, such as their state of school satisfaction and emotions, need to be given more attention by parents and educators because its impact on their social-emotional development. There is a paradoxical finding from research that while there is no problem in achieving good academic outcomes, many students report dissatisfaction with their school or learning experiences. Hence, it is important to explore the experience of students of their school. In this study, the thinking and the feelings of Jakarta Indonesia primary school students about school are explored through students’ written stories or drawings and through focus group interviews. As the subjects of education who have rights to be heard, students’ voices can be a communicative power to highlight the realities of their life in classrooms and schools. Students’ perspectives on their learning environments reflect how they construct meaning of their school experience. Emerging themes of this study are used to identify what factors of the learning environments impact on students’ school satisfaction and emotions in school. The result of this study shows that the psychosocial school environment is a pivotal aspect that influences students’ feelings and emotions in school. Different perspectives of students across the schools are valuable information in providing them with a better learning environment.