Investigation of preservice chemistry teacher's views on green chemistry

Green chemistry is a fairly new field in chemistry that reduces the harmful effects of chemicals and reveals the requirements for reducing environmental pollution. In other words, it is a branch that aims to use environmentally friendly products and use sustainable energy. For a cleaner world, individuals need to know about green chemistry and be aware of their contribution to the environment. The role of chemistry teachers is of great importance in the training of these individuals. For this reason, prospective chemistry teachers who will become the future teachers should be trained in green chemistry. The aim of this study is to examine how the green chemistry activities lasted four-week contributed to the development of chemistry teachers' views on green chemistry. The study group of the research consists of 13 preservice chemistry teachers studying in the last year of the Chemistry Teacher Education program at Van Yuzuncu Yil University in the fall semester of the 2019-2020 academic year. In this study, an action research from qualitative research patterns was used as a research design. Green chemistry activities were carried out with the problem based learning method. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted twice with each participant before and after the application of green chemistry activities. There are six open-ended questions in the interview form. The data obtained from the study were analyzed through content analysis. According to the results obtained, it was concluded that, thanks to the training practices given in green chemistry, preservice teachers views on green chemistry developed positively. Based on the findings, teaching the subject of green chemistry as a lesson in chemistry teacher education programs is thought to contribute to the fact that chemistry teacher candidates become more environmentally friendly teachers and to raise conscious individuals about green chemistry in the future.