Investigation of classroom teacher candidates' attitudes towards environment and their knowledge levels regarding environmental problems in terms of various variables

The aim of this research is to examine the attitudes and sensitivities of classroom teacher candidates towards the environment and their level of knowledge about environmental problems. The survey model, one of the quantitative research designs, was used in the research. The study group of the research consists of a total of 173 teacher candidates studying in Kastamonu University Faculty of Education Classroom Education undergraduate program in the fall semester of the 2023-2024 academic year. "Environmental Attitude Scale", "Environmentally Responsible Behavior Scale" and "Environmental Problems Knowledge Test" were used as data collection tools of the research. The data collected within the scope of the research were analyzed using the SPSS 25.0 statistical package program. Accordingly, t-test for independent groups and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for data analysis. According to the findings, it was concluded that the attitudes of classroom teacher candidates towards the environment were generally positive. When the environmental attitude scale scores of the teacher candidates were compared in terms of gender variable at each grade level, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the second-grade female teacher candidates and the male teacher candidates in favor of the female teacher candidates. It was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the attitude scale scores at other grade levels in terms of gender variable. When the scores of classroom teacher candidates from the environmentally responsible behavior scale were examined, it was determined that the majority of the participants had environmentally responsible behaviors. When the environmentally responsible behavior scale scores at the grade level were compared in terms of gender variable, it was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the environmentally responsible behavior scale scores of male and female teacher candidates. When the environmentally responsible behavior scale scores were examined in terms of the grade level variable, it was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the scores of the second grade teacher candidates and the scores of the second grade teacher candidates in favor of the second grade teacher candidates. When the environmental problems knowledge test scores of classroom teacher candidates were examined, it was determined that the teacher candidates had an average level of knowledge about environmental problems. When the average scores of the environmental issues knowledge test of the classroom teacher candidates were compared in terms of gender variable, it was concluded that there was no statistically significant difference between the average scores of the female and male classroom teacher candidates. It was determined that there was a statistically significant difference between the environmental problems knowledge test average scores of classroom teacher candidates according to the grade level variable. As a result of the analyses, it was concluded that teacher candidates studying in the fourth, third and second grades had a higher level of knowledge about environmental problems than the first-year teacher candidates. When the results obtained from the research were examined in general, it was determined that the classroom teacher candidates' attitudes towards the environment were at a high level. In addition, it was determined that the environmentally friendly behavior of teacher candidates was at a high level. However, it was concluded that the environmental issues knowledge levels of the classroom teacher candidates who participated in the research were not sufficient.