Session Information
10 SES 12 C, Research on Values, Beliefs and Understandings in Teacher Education
Paper Session
Contribution
During the last decades, environmental issues especially the greenhouse effect, the ozone layer depletion, climate change and acid rains have received much attention by the science and education community (e.g. Boyes & Stanisstreet, 1993; Groves & Pugh, 1999; Bozkurt & Cansüngü-Koray, 2002. Khalid, 2003; Papadimitriou, 2004). The greenhouse effect is one of the most serious environmental issues that the Earth faces at present and it is a complex scientific phenomenon that needs an interdisciplinary approach to be explained. Environmental Protection Agency (2002) defined the greenhouse effect is “the result of chemical compounds found in the Earth’s atmosphere acting as greenhouse gases, trapping outgoing terrestrial radiation and warming Earth’s atmosphere” (p.2 as cited in Lee, Lester, Ma, Lambert, & Jean-Baptiste, 2007). Greenhouse gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, and methane are naturally found in the atmosphere. But human activity has increased in the amount of greenhouse gases. Lee et al. defined the accelaration or magnification of this phenomenon as an intensified greenhouse effect while natural phenomenon as the greenhouse effect. However, human activiy has caused an increase in the atmospheric gases. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that human activity is likely to be the main cause of global warming, since human activities keep to add greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides, causing the global temperature to rise and the Earth’s climate to change. Therefore, it is very important to effectively teach about global warming and climate change to students in schools in order to promote well-informed, decision maker citizenry about global warming in the future. In the literature there has been many studies investigated student conceptions of environmental issues (Bozkurt & Cangünsü- Koray, 2002; Darçın, Bozkurt, Hamaloğlu & Köse, 2006; Kılınç, Stanisstreet & Boyes, 2008; Shepardson et al., 2009). On the other hand, there is little research on teachers’ conceptions of these issues (Groves & Pugh, 1999; Khalid, 2003; Papadimitriou, 2004). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify pre-service teachers’ conceptions of environmental issues. The current study was guided by the following research questions.
- What are pre-service teachers’ conceptions about environmental issues mainly the greenhouse effect, ozone depletion and acid rain?
- Is there any significant difference on teachers’ conceptions of environmental issues in terms of the department?
- Is there any significant difference on teachers’ conceptions of environmental issues in terms of gender?
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Boyes, E., & Stanisstreet, M. (1993). The “Greenhouse effect”: Children’s perceptions of causes, consequences and cures. International Journal of Science Education, 15, 531-552. Bozkurt, O. & Cansüngü-Koray, Ö. (2002). Primary school students’ misconceptions about greenhouse effect in environmental education. Hacettepe University Journal of College of Education, 23, 67-73. Darçın, E. S., Bozkurt, O., Hamaloğlu, M., & Köse, S. (2006). Misconceptions about greenhouse effect. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 1(2), 104-115. Groves, F. H., & Pugh, A. F. (1999). Elementary pre-service teacher perceptions of the greenhouse effect. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 8(1), 75-81. Khalid, T. (2003). Pre-service high school teachers’ perceptions of three environmental phenomena. Environmental Education Research, 9(1), 35-50. Kılınç, A., Stanisstreet, M., & Boyes, E. (2008). Turkish students’ ideas about global warming. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 3(2), 89-98. Lee, O., Lester, B. T., Ma, L., Lambert, J. & Jean-Baptiste, M. (2007). Conceptions of the greenhouse effect and global warming among elementary students from diverse languages and cultures. Journal of Geoscience Education, 55(2), 117-125. Papadimitriou, V. (2004). Prospective primary teachers’ understanding of climate change, greenhouse effect, and ozone layer depletion. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 13(2), 299-307. Shepardson, D. P., Niyogi, D., Choi, S. & Charusombat, U. (2009). Seventh grade students’ conceptions of global warming and climate change. Environmental Education Research, 15(5), 549-570.
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