Investigating relationships among pre-service science teachers' scientific epistemological beliefs, environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes: A structural equation modeling study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among preservice science teachers' scientific epistemological beliefs, environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes. Considering this purpose, a model which explains the relationships among these variables has been proposed and examined by using structural equation modeling. In this model; it is proposed that a) preservice science teachers' epistemological beliefs about scientific knowledge have a direct effect on their environmental knowledge level and environmental attitudes, b) their environmental knowledge level has a direct impact on their environmental attitudes. A total of 584 teaching candidates from 6 different state colleges located in Ankara, Bolu, Aksaray, Tokat and Kırşehir participated in the study. Three different scales were utilized to identify participants' scientific epistemological beliefs, environmental knowledge level and environmental attitudes. Confirmatory factor analysis has been conducted to investigate participants' scientific epistemological beliefs, environmental knowledge level and environmental attitudes of science teaching candidates. In general, he results of structural equation modeling have supported the proposed relations. The ultimate model obtained in the study reveals that preservice science teachers' epistemological beliefs about the structure of scientific knowledge affect directly their environmental knowledge level and environmental attitudes. Keywords: Scientific Epistemological Belief, Environmental Knowledge,Environmental Attitudes, Preservice Science Teachers, Structural Equation Modeling