Science, biology, geography and social studies teachers 'perceptions on biodiversity and teaching levels in the biodiversity courses in the region where they work

The reduction in world biodiversity is becoming more dangerous day by day as a result of people's irresponsible activities. This situation has caused the biodiversity to gain global importance. Today, very important researches are carried out at national and international level in order to protect, learn and sustain biodiversity. In order to overcome the existing problems related to biodiversity, a significant part of these researches consisted of studies conducted with teacher and teacher candidates. This study is an interdisciplinary study designed to learn teachers' views on biodiversity, to know the biodiversity of the regions where they work and to determine their status in their lessons. The study group consisted of three volunteer biology, three geography, three science and three social studies teachers worked in Sakarya and its districts. In this phenomenological study prepared on the basis of qualitative approach, data were collected using semi-structured interview form. The data were interpreted by using the content analysis method. NVİVO qualitative data analysis software was used in the given coding. As a result of this study, it was realized that the teachers in the related field had deficiencies in biodiversity, did not investigate sufficiently the regions where they work but they were aware of the importance of biodiversity. In addition, it was stated that the related branch teachers were alone in transferring the biodiversity to the students and they could not get enough support from the media, civil society organizations, state policies, universities and colleagues. It was noticed that biodiversity could not be processed very efficiently, because there was not enough time in the curriculum. According to the opinions taken from the teachers, it was stated that activities such as organizing trips and exhibitions, organizing training camps, giving seminars in schools to the experts in the field and the visits of the zoo and museums were necessary for efficient processing biodiversity. As a result of the study, it was understood that education activities should be organized in order to increase awareness of the society on biodiversity and studies should be carried out at family level.