Determining environmental literacy levels of preservice science teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine i) the level of environmental literacy (EL) of preservice science teachers (PST) and ii) the factors affecting the level of EL. Descriptive survey method was used in the study. The research was conducted in two stages as pilot and main studies. The pilot study, which is the first stage of the work, was conducted during fall semester of the 2009-2010 school year and 208 preservice science teachers voluntarily participated in the study. The main study was conducted in 10 different universities in Turkey. A total of 586 preservice science teachers participated to the study during the spring semester of 2010. To collect data in the study, environment behavior scale, environment attitude scale, and environment knowledge test were used. Independent-samples t-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation statistics were used in the analysis of results obtained from this study. The findings of the study revealed that environmental knowledge of the participants was moderate level, environmental attitude of the participants was high, and environment behavior level of the participants was moderate. In addition, the findings showed that, in general, the levels of PSTs? EL were moderate level. The findings also revealed that the factors significantly affecting preservice science teachers? knowledge level was as follows: general academic average, father?s career, mother?s education level and her age. The factor significantly affecting the attitudes of PSTs? was found as gender. It was also found that the factors affecting behavior toward environment were gender and father education level. In light of the findings obtained from this study, some suggestions to develop environmental literacy and for further research are made.