Examining the Durability of Environmental Education Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Preservice Teaching

Abstract

This research examined the outcome of a year two intervention which aligned two instructional contexts, to impact preservice teachers’ Environmental Education (EE) self-efficacy beliefs and their use of inquiry-based instruction. The intervention immersed candidates in inquiry-based pedagogies and EE content across a science content course and a general methods course. It was found that the teacher candidates’ EE self-efficacy beliefs increased over the first half of the intervention and then decreased towards the end. The analysis of 14 units of instruction showed a lack of certain inquiry-based elements across all units. Practical and theoretical implications are considered.