Emotions about Teaching about Human-Induced Climate Change

Abstract

Global climate change is receiving increasing attention as a classroom topic. At the same time, research has shown that individuals have strong emotions about the topic. Emotions about controversial topics and individuals' dispositions toward knowledge have been shown to influence judgments about these topics. This study examined the relationships among preservice elementary and in-service secondary science teachers' emotions about and plausibility perceptions of climate change, background knowledge of weather and climate distinctions (a principle related to understanding climate change), and dispositions toward knowledge. Teachers' topic emotions (anger and hopelessness) were significant predictors of plausibility perceptions, with more anger associated with lesser plausibility and greater hopelessness associated with higher plausibility. Decisiveness—an urgent desire to reach closure—was also significantly related to plausibility perceptions with greater decisiveness associated with reduced plausibility perceptions. In-service secondary teachers who do not currently teach about climate change exhibited greater anger and decisiveness than preservice elementary teachers and in-service secondary teachers who do teach about climate change. Implications for climate literacy education are discussed.

Keywords:

• Teacher beliefs
• Plausibility judgments and reasoning
• Earth science education
• Teacher emotions
• Climate change

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Janelle Bailey from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Dr. Suzanne Broughton from Utah State University for their valuable feedback on this study. We would also like to thank the Ms. Ellen Ebert, Mr. Brett Sibley, and Ms. Elizabeth Marconi from the Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program, as well as school district officials, for allowing us to collect data at their summer professional development. Finally we would like to thank all the teachers who participated in this study.