How related are technical and subjective measures of building conditions?

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between technical school building conditions and student satisfaction with the school buildings. Learning more about the relationship between the measures will be useful for researchers who are studying the effect from physical work conditions on student achievement. Design/methodology/approach – The paper aims to study the correlation between technical condition and user satisfaction with school buildings using two different data sources. The first source is administrative data, where the local governments have reported the condition of their school buildings to a national investigation of school building conditions. The second source is survey data where students in Norwegian primary schools report their satisfaction with their learning environment, including the school buildings. Combining the two data sources provides a unique data set for a large number of Norwegian primary schools. Findings – The measures of technical and subjective condition are significantly correlated, but the correlation is far from 100 percent. Hence, it will be of great interest for researchers to look more into potential effects from subjective measures of building condition. Originality/value – The paper provides an investigation of the link between two different measures of building conditions that can both be relevant to use in studies of how school buildings affect student performance.