ABSTRACT
This study describes the development and initial validation of a tool to measure teachers' beliefs about environmental education (EE), beliefs about their own self-efficacy in teaching EE in their classroom, beliefs about the support they receive to teach EE in their classroom, motivators of their decision to teach EE in their classroom, and concerns related to teaching EE in their classroom. Survey respondents (N = 620) were 21–74 years of age. The majority of respondents were female, and most of them taught science than any other subject. Exploratory factor analysis was used to examine the internal structure of the instrument. The cumulative percentage of variance explained by the constructs was approximately 63%, and reliability estimates were 0.857 and above.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Ashley W. Mullens
Dr. Ashley W. Mullens is an Extension Associate with the LSU Agricultural Center. She has worked as the manager of the 4-H Youth Wetlands Education and Outreach Program since 2008.
Melissa Cater
Dr. Melissa Cater is an Associate Professor in program evaluation at Louisiana State University and LSU AgCenter, Department of Agricultural and Extension Education and Evaluation. She leads statewide evaluations for the 4-H Youth Development and Snap-Ed programs. She teaches graduate level courses in program development, survey design, and data collection methods with children and youth. Her research interests include evaluation of non-formal educational programs, assessing program quality and implementation of programs, survey design for youth audiences, and youth engagement in out-of-school time contexts.