Ghanaian preservice science teachers’ knowledge of ozone depletion and climate change, and sources of their knowledge

ABSTRACT

Training a scientific workforce in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change drives an international need for climate science education, including in Ghana. How preservice teachers understand climate change, and the often misunderstood relationship between ozone depletion and global warming, critically impacts the students they will teach. This mixed method, descriptive study explores preservice teachers’ climate change and ozone depletion knowledge, and documents the sources of their ideas. Elementary preservice science teachers from three colleges of education in Ghana completed a survey (N = 255) and interview (n = 30). Exploratory factor analysis yielded six factors related to ozone depletion and four related to climate change knowledge. Survey and interview responses revealed that the preservice teachers could explain that stratospheric ozone is a layer of gas in the atmosphere that prevents ultraviolet radiation from reaching Earth. Yet, they could not describe how ozone forms and the mechanism of ozone destruction. The preservice teachers confused climate change with changes in weather and seasons, but could explain how anthropogenic activities like deforestation and burning fossil fuels contribute to climate change. About 88% of the participants thought climate change and ozone depletion were causally linked – either ozone depletion caused climate change, or climate change caused ozone depletion. The participating preservice teachers identified textbooks (80%), instructors (64%), and the media (62%) as the main sources of their ozone depletion and climate change knowledge. We identified a mix of knowledge gaps and coherent ideas that offer scaffolds on which to improve teachers’ knowledge of climate change and ozone depletion.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• ozone layer
• ozone depletion-climate change assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the Western Michigan University Graduate College and The Mallinson Institute for Science Education for funding this project. They are grateful to the Ghana Council for Tertiary Education for allowing us to conduct the survey and interviews in the three colleges of education and all the principals and instructors who helped us with the data collection. Special thanks also go to Dr Peggy McNeal for helping us with coding and Dr Steven Bertman for reviewing the ODCCKA instrument. The authors also acknowledge Laura Tinigin, Jay Cockrell, Kristen Foley, and Samuel Odame for the support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by the Western Michigan University graduate research grant and the Mallinson Institute for Science Education graduate students' research grant.