This study investigated perceptions of senior high school students towards the Taiwanese information technology (IT) classroom with the What Is Happening in this Class? (WIHIC) survey and explored the physical learning environment of the IT classroom using the Computerised Classroom Environment Inventory (CCEI). The participants included 2,869 students from 80 classes of senior high schools, vocational high schools and comprehensive high schools in Taiwan. This study had a mixed-method design in which both quantitative (WIHIC and CCEI scales) and qualitative (classroom observations and interview) methods were used. In order to have a cross-cultural perspective, the results of this study were also compared with the earlier findings of Zandvliet and Straker (Ergonomics 44:838-857, 2001) and Zandvliet and Fraser (Learn Environ Res 8:1-17, 2005), which involved Canadian and Australian students in IT settings. Further, we attempted to understand the influence of different gender compositions (all boys, all girls and mixed-gender classes) on students' perceptions of the IT learning environment and students' satisfaction with the IT course. Both the "Spatial environment" of physical environments and "Autonomy/Independence" of psychosocial environments were found to be indicators of students' satisfaction with learning in IT courses, but physical variables as measured with the CCEI scales were not able to predict students' perceptions of the psychosocial environment. Furthermore, relationships among students' satisfaction, psychosocial environment and physical environment were quite different among students from classes with different gender compositions.