Student Relationship IDENTIFIERS *Adult Classroom Environment Scale

Research by Darkenwald and by James and Day supports the contention that instructor behavior is a critical factor in shaping the kind of classroom environment desired by adult learners. Darkenwald developed the Actual and Ideal Adult Classroom Environmental Scale (ACES), which measures seven dimensions: involvement, affiliation, teacher support, task orientation, personal goal attainment, organization and clarity, and student influence. Discrepancies between instructor and student responses for the Actual ACES suggest that teachers are unaware of the social environment students actually experience. Research conducted by James and Day identified six categories of instructor behavior that contribute tc making an adult learning environment lc $ than optimal?. attitude, attitude/behavior, behavior, behavior/task, environment, and task. They used McClusky's theory that margin is the relationship betwee