Explaining the Role of the Physical Components of the Educational Environment on the Motivation to Learn of Elementary School Students in Tehran

The educational environment is one of the determining factors in the academic progress of students.The purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of physical components of the educational environment on the student's motivation in Tehran. The type of present research was descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of the research included the Sixth-grade elementary school students of Tehran city who were studying in the academic year of 2020-2021. Sampling was done by the systematic-probability sampling method. Three hundred and eighty-seven students who met the criteria to enter the research were selected. The research tools included questionnaires on the physical aspects of the classroom environment (PACE) (Ahmad et al. 2015) and the student's motivation toward science learning (SMTSL) (Tuan et al. 2005). To analyze the data, smart partial least squares structural (PLS) software, Pearson correlation test, and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used. The results showed that the components of the physical environment (Academic self-efficacy, furniture, equipment and facilities, space, light, indoor air quality, and color) have a positive and significant relationship with the learning motivation variable. Also, the analysis of SEM showed that the value of the t statistic in all cases is higher than 1.96. Factor loading of items was above 0.40 and so the selected questions had appropriate factor structures. The path coefficient was equal to 0.340 and the absolute value of the t statistic was equal to 5.197 which was higher than 1.96. There was a significant positive relationship between the physical components of the educational environment, learning motivation, and the academic self-efficacy of students. Therefore, planning for changes in the structure of the physical components of schools can be one of the priorities of creating a fundamental change in the achieving academic excellence of students.