Determining natural disaster literacy levels of preservice teachers

The purpose of this study is to determine the natural disaster literacy levels of preservice teachers of social studies, primary-school and science in the 4th grade and to demonstrate the effects of the several variables on the components (knowledgeaffective tendency- behaviour) of natural disaster literacy. Accordingly, the study was conducted by using the maximum variation sampling with 1218 pre-service teachers selected from eight different universities in Turkey. In the study, the survey model was used and the data was collected with 'Natural Disaster Literacy Survey' including the personal information form, the behaviour scale, the affective tendency scale and the knowledge test. Descriptive statistics, independent sample t test, one way ANOVA and partial correlation statistics were analysed by performing SPSS program. According to the findings, the natural disaster knowledge and behaviours of preservice teachers are at a moderate level, and their affective tendencies towards natural disasters are partially high. The overall natural disaster literacy rate is relatively high. While gender, settlement, father education and family monthly income status do not make a significant difference, the department, university, grade point average and mother education status cause a significant difference on the natural disaster literacy of pre-service teachers. In addition, there is a weak relationship between the scores of knowledge and scores of behaviour and affective tendency. Also, there is a moderate positive relationship between the scores of the behaviour and affective tendency scale in terms of the components of the natural disaster literacy. Furthermore, pre-service teachers having high academic success, experiencing a natural disaster himself or a relative, participating in natural disasters activities, having natural disaster courses have higher levels of natural disaster literacy. At the end of the study, some suggestions based on the findings were made focusing on the curriculum, the practitioners and the researchers.