Investigation of disaster awareness of science teacher candidates

In this research, it was aimed to determine the disaster awareness of science teacher candidates and to examine their opinions about disasters. It is very important to create social awareness against disasters, and one of the most effective methods of creating this is to provide training. Since the basis of disaster training is generally given in schools, teachers have very important duties. In order for disaster training to be effective and permanent, teacher candidates' disaster awareness must also be determined. In the research conducted for this purpose, the level of disaster awareness of science teacher candidates was examined by looking at variables such as gender, age, disaster experience, geographical region where they grew up and receiving disaster training. The mixed method sequential explanatory design was used in the research. The sample of the research consists of a total of 101 science teacher candidates studying in the field of science education at Sakarya University in the 2023-2024 academic year. In addition, an open-ended questionnaire was applied to 36 teacher candidates and their opinions were taken and examined. "Personal Information Form", "Disaster Awareness Perception Scale" and "Open-Ended Questionnaire" were used as data collection tools. In the analysis of the research data, frequency distributions, standard deviation values, arithmetic means, and Mann Whitney U test were used to analyze the data using SPSS. As a result of the research, it was determined that the disaster awareness of prospective science teachers was generally at a high level. It has been determined that disaster awareness varies significantly according to the geographical region where they grew up and the situation of experiencing disaster, but does not differ significantly according to gender, age and participation in disaster education. It was determined that there was no significant difference between teacher candidates who received disaster training and those who did not. Additionally, the opinions obtained from the open-ended questionnaire were analyzed using the content analysis method. It was determined that the opinions of science teacher candidates in the open-ended question form were generally related to earthquakes, and that they did not know the disaster emergency meeting areas and the disaster plan of their schools. In line with the results of the research, suggestions were made regarding training activities for individuals on disasters and the content of training programs.