Investigating of the ecoliteracy levels of preservice teachers

The aim of this study is to determine to ecoliteracy levels of preservice teachers', to examine the components of ecoliteracy in terms of various demographic variables and to reveal the relationship between these components. The research was carried out using descriptive and relational patterns of quantitative research designs. The research sample consisted of 304 preservice teacher in the 3rd and 4th grades of Science Education, Classroom Teaching, Social Studies and Preschool Education Programs in the study in the academic year 2017-2018. As data collection tools was used "Ecology Knowledge Test", "Ecological Intelligence Scale" and "Decision Making Skills Test on Ecological Dilemmas" which were developed by the researcher and "Scale For Affective Tendencies Towards The Environment" developed by Wisconsin Center for Environmental Education and adapted into Turkish by Karatekin (2011) was used. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were performed in the likert type scale development stage of the study. For the reliability of the scale, Cronbach Alpha coefficient, item-total correlations, and test-retest correlation were calculated for consistency against time. The suitability of the data was examined by the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) coefficient and Bartlett's sphericity test. In the success test development process, item analysis was performed and the reliability of the test was calculated with the KR-20 coefficient. In the analysis of the data, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, descriptive statistics such as max and min, as well as non-independent samples t-test in the normally distributed data, One-Way Variance Analysis for Unrelated Samples (ANOVA), Mann Whitney to test the difference of independent groups in the data that did not show normal distribution The U test was used to determine the difference of multivariate independent groups using the Kruskal Wallis H-Test. In addition, the results of the Kruskal Wallis H-Test revealed significant differences between the groups and the Mann Whitney U Test. In the study, path analysis was used to determine the relationships between eco-literacy components (ecological knowledge, ecological intelligence, affective tendency towards the environment and decision-making skills on ecological dilemmas). As a result of the research; ecoliteracy levels of preservice teachers were found to be moderate. Significant differences were determined in terms of the demographic variables of preservice teachers scores obtained from ecoliteracy dimensions. It was determined that preservice teachers' ecology knowledge scores were significantly affected by department, high school type and environmental education at university. Ecological intelligence scores of preservice teachers' were found to be significantly affected by the variables of participation in the department, gender, environmental protection association, and environmental protection activities. It was determined that preservice teachers' affective tendency towards the environment scores were significantly affected by and place of residence and residence type variables. The decision making skills of preservice teachers' were found to be statistically significant only in terms of department variable. In addition, as a result of path analysis made between ecoliteracy dimensions was found that there were significant relationships between environmental affective tendency and ecological intelligence, between ecological intelligence and ecological knowledge, between ecological knowledge and decision-making skills. Various suggestions have been made based on the results of the research.