Environmental problems can be handled by bringing up people who are aware of environmental issues and who have not only adequate knowledge, but also positive attitudes and perceptions towards environment. Many studies have been conducted to investigate environmental attitude of students (Alp, Ertepinar, Tekkaya & Yilmaz, 2006; Tikka, Kuitunen & Tynys, 2000) and pre-service teachers (Dillon & Gayford, 1997; Teksoz, Sahin & Ertepinar, 2010; Tuncer et al., 2009). For instance, Teksoz et al. (2010) examined pre-service chemistry teachers’ environmental attitude which was component of environmental literacy. They found that these pre-service teachers had pessimistic attitude towards environmental concerns. On the other hand, there have been few studies related with environmental risk perception in the literature. For instance, Altunoglu and Atav (2009) investigated risk perception of secondary school students by using the environmental risk perception scale developed by Slimak and Dietz (2006). They found that risk perceptions of these students were above average and this result revealed that they had high awareness of environmental concerns. By using the same scale, Sam, Gürsakal and Sam (2010) examined university students’ environmental risk perception and found that participants perceive radiation, sewage and hazardous waste sites as most the most important risk factors for environment. In addition, this study reported that there was a statistically significant relationship between environmental attitude and environmental risk.

A number of studies investigated students’ environmental attitude (Alp et al., 2006; Tuncer et al., 2009; Tikka et al., 2000) in terms of gender. The results of all these studies revealed that female participants have more positive attitudes than male participants. Also, some studies conducted to investigate environmental risk perception in terms of gender (Sam et al., 2010; Riechard & Peterson,1998). The results of these studies indicated that female students had higher risk perception than their male counterparts. 

Although studies were conducted concerning environmental risk perceptions of university students, there has not been any study related with environmental risk perception of pre-service teachers. Moreover, there has not been any study related with the relationship between pre-service teachers’ environmental risk perception and environmental attitude. It is important to investigate environmental risk perception and environmental attitude of pre-service teachers because they have important role on improving environmental awareness of future generations. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate the environmental risk perception and environmental attitudes of pre-service science and mathematics teachers and whether there is a relationship between them. The research questions of this study were as follows:

1.      What is environmental risk perception and environmental attitudes of pre-service science and mathematics teachers in Turkey?

2.      Do pre-service science and mathematics teachers’ environmental risk perception and environmental attitudes differ in terms of gender?

3.      Are pre-service science and mathematics teachers’ environmental attitude significantly related to their environmental risk perception?

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