Attitude Change Among Teachers in U.S. Department of Energy Educational Workshops

Summary

This study assessed whether the attitudes of teachers toward energy issues were significantly changed by participating in U.S. government-sponsored educational workshops. Pre- and postquestionnaires (32 items) were administered to 47 participants at two of these workshops. An ANOVA for repeated measures was performed to ascertain significant changes. Direction of attitude change was also analyzed. Results indicated that the effect of workshop participation on energy attitudes was quite small. Changes were more evident in policy items than in items dealing with energy sources. For a minority of Ss, the workshop experience appeared to intensify existing attitudes about energy sources and to change policy attitudes from one extreme to the other.