Turkish pre-service science teachers' awareness, beliefs, values, and behaviours pertinent to climate change

ABSTRACT

This study examined Turkish pre-service science teachers’ awareness, uncertainty beliefs, values, and behaviours pertinent to climate change. It aimed to determine significant predictors of climate change-related behaviours and uncertainty beliefs about the reality of climate change. A Turkish-adapted survey was administered to 1277 pre-service science teachers from different geographical regions of Turkey. While majority of the respondents were certain that climate change is happening, there were also indicators of uncertainties in such belief. Pre-service teachers who value nature for its own sake tended to show favourable behaviours to mitigating climate change. Disinterest in and scepticism about the reality of climate change did not emerge as significant determinants of climate change-related behaviours.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropocentrism
• climate change education
• ecocentrism
• pre-service science teachers
• uncertainty beliefs

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.