c  2010 SPVM. All rights reserved. ISSN 1655-4620. http://physics.msuiit.edu.ph/spvm Baseline exploration of the viability of constructivist learning environment on high school and college physics classroom Sotero O. Malayao Jr. a* , Myrna E. Lahoylahoy b a Department of Science and Mathematics Education, MSU- Iligan Institute of Technology, A. Bonifacio Avenue, Tibanga, 9200 Iligan City, Philippines b School of Graduate Studies for College of Education, MSU- Iligan Institute of Technology, A. Bonifacio Avenue, Tibanga, 9200 Iligan City, Philippines Abstract Over the last two decades, the emphasis on strengthening the science education in basic education is very clear in terms of mandate from the government line agencies. However, the offshoot of such advocacy is yet to be popularly known due to the scarcity of literature in Philippine context. Many trends are sporadically tried by educators but minimal coherent evaluation has evolved to serve as compass in directing any development specifically in physics education. In this paper, the popular trend of constructivist learning environment is considered for applicability in Philippine classrooms. The research covered a wider demographic by fielding the Physics Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (PCLES) to 1000 college students taking college physics in MSU-IIT and 1,194 senior high school students in public and private schools within Iligan City and nearby provinces. The result shows that the overall internal consistency of PCLES is relatively high at cronbach α of 0.818 and the five dimensions has internal consistency ranging from α =0.55 to α =0.74. In the overall, PCLES is highly applicable in both high school and college physics classroom. c  2010 SPVM. All rights reserved. Keywords: Constructivist learning, PCLES, pedagogy trends, physics 1. Introduction Inquiry of perceptions of psychosocial characte- ristics learning environment has been the focus in western countries for quite a time now in all levels of learning [1] . In fact, classroom environment tools have been given such status of versatility as criterion and predictor variables in many education researches [2] . Some early researches established consistent rela- tionship between classroom environment and many student cognitive and affective outcomes [3] . Some studies also show considerable association between inquiry skills, science related attitudes, and classroom environment dimensions [4] . 1.1. Studies from Other Countries In Australia, variation in classroom psychoso- cial climate exist between Catholic and government schools [3] ; and between single sex and coeduca- tional schools [4] ; in some cases, classroom climate dimensions proved to be effective process criteria * Corresponding author: somaljrb@gmail.com in curriculum evaluation [5] ; and both students and teachers preferred a more positive classroom than what they perceived is actually and this is concurred by studies in US, Australia, The Netherlands, and Israel [6] . There are many more promising area of researches involving classroom environment on many facets of student outcomes at all levels of learning [7] . 1.2. Rationale In a sense, the present reality in our educational system be it in elementary, secondary, or tertiary, a foundationalist thrust is in place whereby the teachers of science and mathematics are supposed to adopt the role of the experts whose main tasks is to transmit to students the universal body of truth [8] . However, this is foundational view is also discredited by philosophers of science and math like Feyerabend, 1962, Hersch, Kitcher, and Kline [9] .