The Relationship between Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers' Environmental Education Self-Efficacy Beliefs and their Attitudes towards Sustainable Environment

                                                AbstractThe main purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between pre-service early childhood education teachers’ environmental education... [ view full abstract ]

                                                Abstract

The main purpose of the study is to examine the relationship between pre-service early childhood education teachers’ environmental education self-efficacy beliefs and their attitudes towards sustainable environment. The research was conducted in the spring term of 2015-2016 academic year and a total of 129 pre-service teachers participated in the study. Sustainable Environment Attitude Scale (SEAS) was utilized to determine pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward sustainable environment in data collection process. Besides, Environmental Education Self-efficacy Scale (EESS) was conducted to identify pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs about environmental education. Descriptive statistics were employed to elicit demographic information of participants and inferential analysis was implemented to analyze the data. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between pre-service teachers’ environmental education self-efficacy beliefs and their attitudes toward sustainable environment.

Keywords: Early Childhood Education, Environmental Education, Sustainable Environment, Pre-service Teachers