assroom climate" (Crawford & McLeod, 1990). Heller, Puff, and Mills (1985) found no gender differences in perceptions; however, their study concentrated on overall experiences at college, rather than focusing on specific classrooms. Crawford and McLeod (1990) narrowed the scope to individual classrooms but still did not find gender to be a strong influence on perceived classroom climate, although they did maintain that women perceive themselves to be less involved and less verbally engaged in the classroom than their male counterparts. Given the equivocality of prior research, we sought to clarify the relationship between gender and classroom perceptions.In addition to gender, evidence exists which suggests that one's ethnicity also affects whether the classroom is perceived as cold. For instance, many practices of American public schools and universities, such as competition, challenging authority and praise for individual ability, contradict the cultural beliefs of many Latino and Asian-American students. Not only may American schooling contradict these students' cultural systems, but it may also undermine their sense of well-being and self-confidence (Trueba & Cheng, 1993), because the ethnic identity of Asian and Latino children is often based on their relation to their group. In contrast, American schooling emphasizes independence, individualism, and competition. There are many dimensions on which classrooms may be evaluated, and certainly many environmental factors that may affect students' motivation. This body of research has suggested that three variables seem particularly promising: perceptions of competition; classroom goal orientation; and perceived course meaningfulness.In the academic setting competition has been reported to reduce students' intrinsic interest in tasks (Deci, Betley, Kahle, Abrams, & Porac, 1981). Also, children experience significant negative effects as well as a deflated sense of their own competence in ...
