Environmental education preparation in pre-service teacher programs in Turkey

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to gain insights into how environmental education is implemented into pre-service teacher preparation in Turkey. The format of the courses, their duration, the strategies that are being used, and suggestions to improve these methods were explored. In addition to these data, the missing points in the environmental education in the faculties were analyzed. Two data collection tools were used in this study. One instrument was a questionnaire that was adapted from Ashmann (2010) and the other was an interview designed to ascertain important points of environmental education delivery and to learn suggestions for improving environmental education. The questionnaire was administered to 29 faculty members from institutes that offer teacher education programs in Turkey. The response rate of the questionnaire was 24.14% with seven responses out of 29. The interviews were one with four of the instructors who responded to the questionnaire. One of the most remarkable findings of this study is that environmental education is considered an important subject by instructors who put efforts into their courses. However, the low response rate indicates there is a lack of interest in participating in studies to assess environmental education.