Analysis of needs for teaching the subject of global climate change in 8th grade science course

Climate change is a serious environmental problem that negatively affects living life. It is possible to reduce the effects of this environmental problem caused by unconscious behaviours of people through environmental education. Future generations need to be aware of the problem of climate change and be conscious of the environment. Science course is one of the courses that includes subjects and achievements related to environmental education. It is very important to examine the place of climate change, one of the most serious problems of today and the future, in the science course. In addition, it is also critical to determine the awareness levels of science teachers about climate change. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to determine the needs for teaching the Global Climate Change (GCC) subject in the 8th grade science curriculum. For this purpose, parallel mixed method was used in which qualitative and quantitative methods were used together. In this study, qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed at the same time and the findings were interpreted together. In the qualitative part of the research, the subject of global climate change in the 8th grade science curriculum and 8th grade science textbook was examined by document analysis method. In addition, it was aimed to reveal the views of science teachers on the level of teaching global climate change. At this stage of the research, the phenomenology design was used. In the qualitative data part of the study, semi-structured interview form was used. In the quantitative part of the study, the survey method was preferred to determine the awareness of science teachers about global climate change. Climate Change Awareness Scale was used as a data collection tool. Validity and reliability measures were taken for the quantitative and qualitative data obtained in the study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated as Uncertainty Belief .81, Behaviour Level .80, Epistemic Belief .85, Knowledge Level .86, Attitude Level .74, and total score .80. In addition, "Exploratory Factor Analysis" was conducted to test the validity of the study. Kaiser-Meyer- Olkin (KMO) value was calculated as .81 and Bartlett's test result as .00. All these results reveal that the scale applied in the current study gives valid and reliable results. The participant group of the study consisted of 179 science teachers (111 female and 68 male) working in public and private schools in Gaziantep province in the 2021-2022 academic year. The sample group of the study was determined by purposive sampling method. The level of 8th grade science curriculum and 8th grade science textbook were determined. For this purpose, frequency and percentage statistics were calculated and tables were created. The data in the semi-structured interview form were analysed by content analysis method. Codes such as "K1, K2" were used instead of the names of the participants. In the Global Climate Change Awareness Scale, there are Epistemic and Uncertainty Beliefs, Knowledge and Awareness, Environmentally Friendly Behaviours, Attitude towards Environment and demographic information sections. When the findings of the study were analysed, it was found that science teachers' awareness of CSE did not differ significantly according to the variables of gender, professional experience and taking environmental courses. It was also found that the variables of Epistemic and Uncertainty Beliefs, Knowledge and Awareness, Environmentally Friendly Behaviours, Attitude Towards Environment in the scale as well as CSE did not differ statistically significantly. However, significant relationships were found between participants' Uncertainty Beliefs, Behaviour Levels, Epistemic Beliefs and Knowledge Levels.