Science teachers' knowledge on climate change and their views related to teaching of climate change

The purpose of this study is to reveal the knowledge and awareness of science teachers about climate change and their views on teaching of climate change. Within the last regulations, the curriculum of "environmental education and climate change" course was prepared and it will be taught in the new academic year. Therefore, it was aimed to determine how ready science teachers are who are most interested in this subject and are expected to teach about it. In this thesis study, basic qualitative research design was used. The sample of the study consists of 10 science teachers with at least 5 years of professional experience selected according to the purposive sampling method. A semi-structured interview form developed by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. In the data analysis process, the findings were presented under various codes and categories by using content analysis method. When the results of the study were examined, it was determined that science teachers had various knowledge about the causes and effects of climate change and solutions for climate change, but their knowledge remained in a naive level. Moreover, in terms of examining the views of science teachers on climate change education, how they teach about climate change, how climate change course should be taught according to science teachers, barriers encountered in climate change teaching and their reasons were explored. In general, teachers consider that the subject of climate change is not included sufficiently in the science curriculum and they expressed that climate change should be taught through an interdisiciplinary approach. The results of this study unearth the deficiencies and needs related to teaching of climate change and present suggestions for teacher education and climate change education research studies.