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A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’
PERCEPTIONS OF ENVIRONMENT*
Elif ÖZATA YÜCEL
Kocaeli University, Faculty of Education, 41380, Kocaeli, Turkey, [email protected]
Muhlis ÖZKAN
Uludag University, Faculty of Education, 16059, Bursa, Tukey [email protected]
* This Study was presented as oral paper at the 7th International Conference on New Horizons in Education (INTE-2016).
A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’
PERCEPTIONS OF ENVIRONMENT
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study is to reveal the change in pre-service teachers’ perceptions of
environment after learning the subjects and concepts regarding environment. To this end,
Word Association Test (WAT) containing the keyword “environment” was administered to
55 pre-service teachers twice: one in their second year (2013) when they started taking
courses such as biology and ecology and the other in the last term of their fourth year (2016).
In line with the increase in the number of the courses about environment taken, the pre-
service teachers associated the concept of environment with more concepts in their cognitive
structures, re-arranged their cognitive structures by adding new concepts, and had an
improvement in their conceptual perceptions. However, this improvement remained limited,
and the pre-service teachers failed to comprehend the complex relationships completely.
Keywords: Science Education, Environmental Perception, Word Association, Pre-Service
Teachers
1. INTRODUCTION
Environment education, which is considered to be one of the effective ways of preventing
ecological problems, aims to ensure the development of environmental consciousness and a
positive attitude, sensitivity, and awareness towards the nature among individuals. Science
teachers play a key role in an effective environment education. Lang (2000) emphasizes that
the quality of education can be improved through improvement of teachers’ skills of teaching
environment. According to Özata Yücel and Özkan (2014), teachers’ approaches to
environment and holistic perception of ecological concepts will be effective in the accurate
construction of concepts concerning environment by students in their minds.
Individuals’ perceiving and understanding events affect their attitudes, consciousness, and
knowledge (Yardımcı & Bağcı Kılıç, 2010). Therefore, it is very important that teachers, who
play an effective role in environment education, have a right environmental perspective and
perceive environmental concepts correctly.
It is reported in the literature that environment is mostly considered to be an object or a place
where living beings exist (Lougland, Reid & Petocz, 2002; Barraza, 1999; Shepardson, Wee,
Priddy & Harbor, 2007, Demirkaya, 2009; Yardımcı & Bağcı Kılıç, 2010; Yavetz, Goldman
& Pe’er, 2014). It is seen in these studies that environment is only regarded as a place where
living beings live or their vital resources exist, and plants are in the foreground relative to
animals in such environmental perceptions. Shepardson, Wee, Priddy and Harbor (2007)
report that the participating 4th to 12th grade students deemed natural areas as environment,
but did not deem human-made areas as environment. In their study, most of the students
excluded human being from the environment.
Environment is frequently associated with environmental problems. Yardımcı and Bağcı
Kılıç (2010) stressed that the participating 8th grade students were aware of environmental
problems and the harms brought by people to environment and took various measures to
protect it. Barraza (1999) found out that the participants associated environment with
pollution, nuclear waste, war, violence, garbage, forest fire, and so on. Özsoy (2012)
determined that the participants associated it with air pollution, water pollution, soil
pollution, irregular urbanization, and so on. In their studies involving pre-service teachers,
Yavetz, Goldman and Pe’er (2014) and Demirkaya (2009) found out that the participants
emphasized the relations of human beings with their social environment.
The overall evaluation of these studies indicates that students have a limited environmental
perception. Environmental perception is expected to develop accurately and holistically as
education level rises. However, the studies contained in the literature do not support this.
Similar results are reported in the studies carried out on primary school students, middle
school students, high school students, and pre-service teachers. The fact that environmental
perception remains limited despite the rise in education level points to problems within
environment education.
It is important to create an accurate, adequate, and holistic environmental perception in the
courses about environment during the education of pre-service teachers. However, the studies
in the literature show that various problems are encountered in this matter. In this regard, the
purpose of the present study is to reveal the change in pre-service science teachers’
perception of environment after learning the subjects and concepts regarding environment.
2. METHOD
Case study, which is a qualitative research method allowing analyzing one or more than one
situation holistically and in-depth within its own boundaries (Yıldırım & Şimşek, 2008), is
used in this study. Embedded single case study is employed as there is a single situation and
two units of analysis (Yin, 1994).
2.1. Study Group
Criterion sampling, which is a purposeful sampling method, was used in determining the
study group. The same group was longitudinally subjected to two implementations at
different times in order to identify the change in the pre-service science teachers’ perceptions
of environment. The criterion of the first implementation was having just started taking
courses such as biology and ecology that can affect one’s environmental perception. Thus,
data were collected from 63 second grade pre-service teachers (2013). The criterion of the
second implementation was having taken these courses. Therefore, the same group was
subjected to the same implementation in the last semester of the fourth grade (2016). 55 of 63
pre-service teachers that had participated in the first implementation were reached in the
second implementation. Data were evaluated over 55 individuals that were reached in both
implementations.
2.2. Data Collection Tool
Data were collected via Word Association Test (WAT) containing the keyword
“environment”. The keyword “environment” was written ten times one under the other on a
blank paper. In this way, WAT was created in such a way that only one response would be
written on each row. After WAT was completed, the pre-service teachers were also asked to
make a sentence about environment so that the relationships between their responses would
be understood better.
In the Word Association Test, the students gave one or two-word responses which the
keyword evoked in their minds within a particular time period. The number and variety of the
responses given to the keyword were used in the evaluation of the pre-service teachers’
understanding and perception regarding the topic. It is accepted that the sequential response
given by a student to a keyword indicates the relationships between the concepts in his
cognitive structure and shows semantic similarity between them. The closer are two concepts
in the cognitive structure, the faster come out responses (Bahar, Johnstone & Sutcliffe, 1999;
Bahar & Özatlı, 2003; Tsai & Huang, 2002; Shevelson, 1974; Gunston, 1980). In the word
association analysis, both the number of the responses given and the degree to which such
responses are associated with the concept are taken into consideration (Shevelson, 1974).
Gunston (1980) improved Shavelson’s technique by making participants make a sentence
about the keyword after word association was completed to demonstrate the relationship
between two concepts more clearly. It is also highlighted that these sentences can be used in
evaluating cognitive relationships (Gunston, 1980).
2.3. Data Collection
While WAT was being conducted, 30 seconds were given to the pre-service teachers, as in
many studies in the literature (Bahar, Johnstone & Sutcliffe, 1999; Nakipoğğlu, 2008, Özata
Yücel & Özkan, 2014; Canbazoğlu Bilici, 2016). It also took approximately 30 seconds for
the pre-service teachers to make a sentence about the keyword.
2.4. Analysis
The data collected via WAT were subjected to content analysis. The pre-service teachers’
responses to the keyword “environment” were categorized under four main themes: “natural
environment”, “artificial environment”, “environmental problems”, and “feelings and
situations”. The theme of natural environment was divided into sub-themes including “living
elements”, “non-living elements”, and “ecological concepts” (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Themes Formed Based on the Given Responses
The sentences which were made up by the pre-service teachers were analyzed under four
main themes, which are “environment as a social living space”, “environment which needs to
be protected”, “environment as a setting”, and “environment as a system”. The theme
“environment as a setting” was analyzed under three sub-themes: “the place where people
live”, “the place where living beings live”, and “the place where living and non-living beings
exist” (Figure 2).
Figure 2. The Themes Formed Based on the Sentences Made
2.5. Validity and Reliability
Word association is one of the methods used in determining conceptual perception,
conceptual understanding, and relationships between concepts (Bahar, Johnstone and
Sutcliffe, 1999; Bahar and Özatlı, 2003; Canbazoğlu Bilici, 2016; Gunston, 1980; Nakiboğlu,
2008; Özata Yücel and Özkan, 2014; Shavelson, 1974; Tsai and Huang, 2002). WAT was
carried out after positive views were obtained from two experts. In this way, the validity of
the research was ensured.
In order to ensure reliability, Word Association Test was organized in a way allowing each
response to the keyword “environment” to be written on a different row. In this way, it was
tried to ensure that the responses would be influenced by each other at minimum. The
responses given to the keyword were listed through comparison with the formed sentences.
Unrelated or random responses were excluded from the analysis. In addition, separate draft
themes were determined for both responses and sentences by the two researchers in the
process of formation of the themes. Afterwards, the percentages of agreement between the
two researchers were calculated to be 87.01% and 83.64% for the responses and sentences
respectively. An agreement percentage that is not less than 70% (Miles and Huberman, 1994)
is considered to be acceptable. Hence, it can be said that the percentage of agreement is high
in the present study. The codes on which the researchers could not reach an agreement were
reviewed. Final themes were obtained after arriving at a consensus. Moreover, all of the
participant responses were given as a list, and sample sentences were presented. By this
means, an attempt was made to raise the reliability of the study.
3. FINDINGS
Considering the natural environment and the sub-themes associated with it, it is possible to
observe an increase in both the number and variety of the responses. While the total
frequency of the responses to the “living elements” sub-theme (f1=137; f2=140) did not
change to a considerable extent, the number of the responses increased from 15 to 22.
Increase was quite high both in the number and in the total frequency of the responses in the
sub-themes of “non-living elements” and “ecological concepts” (Table 1).
In the “living elements” sub-theme, the responses “human being”, “animal”, “plant”, and
“living being” were given by more students in the second implementation in comparison to
the first implementation. The responses “tree”, “greenery/weed/grass”, “flower”,
“friend/neighbor”, “family”, and “society” were given by fewer students. In addition,
responses such as “fungi”, “microorganism”, and “virus” were added in the second
implementation, though they were delivered by few students.
In the “non-living elements” sub-theme, responses such as “air”, “soil”, and “sun” are in the
foreground. Similar number of students delivered these responses in both implementations.
The responses “atmosphere”, “temperature”, “fossil”, and “rain” were added to them in the
second implementation.
There was quite a high increase in the variety of the responses in the “ecological concepts”
sub-theme in the second implementation. While the concepts “nature”, “forest”, “world”,
“ecosystem”, and “spring” were given as responses in the first implementation, the concepts
“habitat”, “species”, “population”, “community”, “producer”, and “consumer” were added to
them in the second implementation (Table 1).
Table 1: The responses in the natural environment theme and their frequencies Sub-themes
Living elements (N1=15; N2=22) Non-living elements (N1=9; N2=21) Ecological concepts (N1=5; N2=18)Responses f1 f2 Responses f1 f2 Responses f1 f2
Human being 18 29 Air 4 6 Nature 12 20Tree 32 24 Sky/blue 4 2 Forest 10 6Animal 11 17 Sun 3 4 World 1 4Greenery/weed/grass 15 12 Soil 3 3 Ecosystem 1 5Plant 3 15 Sea 2 2 Spring 1 1Flower 14 7 Oxygen 2 3 Living space/habitat 4Friend/neighbor 13 2 Water 2 3 Ecology 6Society 6 4 Non-living beings 1 3 Bio-diversity 1Living being 3 8 Stream 1 Population 2Family 7 1 Atmosphere 2 Species/individual 2Child 3 3 Temperature 1 Niche 2Dog 4 2 Carbon dioxide 1 Evolution 1Bird 3 2 Cloud 1 Producer 1Insect 3 Mountain 1 Consumer 1Cat 2 2 Rock 1 Community 1Fungi 3 Fossil 1 Biology 2Microorganism 2 Running water 1 System 1Virus 2 Nitrogen 1 Cycle 1Seed 1 Ozone 1Mammal 1 Rain 1Caterpillar 1 Source 1Daisy 1 Rainbow 1Leaf 1Total 137 140 Total 22 40 Total 25 61
Of the pre-service teachers’ responses to the keyword “environment”, 10 in the first
implementation and 13 in the second implementation were about environmental problems.
Not a big increase took place in the variety of the responses in the second implementation.
However, total frequency increased from 12 to 43. The biggest share in this increase belongs
to the response “pollution”. While only 1 student gave the response “pollution” in the first
implementation, 16 students delivered this response in the second implementation. The
responses “factory”, “problem”, and “erosion” were not delivered in the first implementation
but were among the responses given by the students in the second implementation (Table 2).
Table 2. The responses in the “artificial environment”, “environmental problems”, and “feelings and situations” themes and their frequencies
Artificial environment Environmental problems
Feelings and sit-uations
Responses (N1=19; N2=15)
f1 f2 Responses (N1=10;N2=13)
f1 f2 Responses(N1=21; N2=23)
f1 f2
House 13 6 Traffic 1 Love 1Building/apartment 8 5 Noise/sound 3 3 Life 5 9Neighborhood/street/avenue
7 1 Petrified structures 1 Friendship 1
Outside of our house 1 Pollution 1 16 Safety 1Garden 2 Cigarette 1 Happiness 1Park 5 3 Smoke 1 Clean 9 7School 3 5 Garbage 1 6 Health 1 2Dorm 1 Problem 4 Protection 3 3Car/vehicle 4 4 Crowd 1 2 Safe 1Dustbin 5 Waste treatment
facility1 Decent 1
Workplace 1 Theme 1 Discipline 1Market 1 Industry 1 Order 2 3Tent 1 Factory 4 Power 1Barbecue 1 1 Erosion 2 Relationship 1Road 3 1 Waste 1 Book 1Pond 1 Recycling 1 Hobby 1Dam 1 Petrol 1 Entertainment 4 2Channel 1 Economy 1 Sightseeing 1Country/province/ district
4 1Gas 1
Bad habit 1
Concrete 1 Crowd 1 2Settlement 1 Picnic 2 1Paper 1 Boring 1Farm 1 Peace 2Pavement 1 Calmness 1Nuclear plant 1 Consciousness 3
Ordeal 1- Sharing 1
Feeling 1Chaos 1Value 1Virtual environment
1
Painting 1Natural wonder 1Natural life 2Crime 1War 1
63 33 12 43 40 48
In the “artificial environment” theme, a decrease took place both in the variety of the
responses (N1=19; N2=15) and in the total frequencies of such responses (f1 =63; f2=33). The
responses “house”, “building/apartment”, and “car/vehicle” were in the foreground in both
implementations (Table 2). In the “feeling and situations” theme, the number of the responses
(N1=21; N2=23) and the total frequency of such responses (f1 =40; f2=48) were close in both
implementations. The responses “life”, “clean”, “protection”, and “order” were in the
foreground in both implementations (Table 2).
Among the students’ sentences about the keyword “environment”, 1 in the first
implementation and 5 in the second implementation were considered to be nonsense. The
thematic distribution of the other sentences indicates that most sentences were about
“environment which needs to be protected” in both implementations. The sentences of 23
students in the first implementation and the sentences of 28 students in the second
implementation were associated with this theme (Table 3).
Table 3. The thematic distribution of the sentences made by the students Theme 2nd grade 4th grade TotalEnvironment which needs to be protected 23 28 51Environment as a setting 15 12 27Environment as a social living space 15 3 18Environment as a system 1 7 8Total 54 50 104
In the sentences, the pre-service teachers frequently emphasized human beings’ negative
effects on environment. They also touched on the impacts of environmental problems on
human beings, but did not pay much attention to their impacts on other living beings. Though
it was stressed much that environment should be protected, the measures that can be taken
were mentioned little. The pre-service teachers offered precautions such as gaining
awareness, not dropping litter, and keeping the environment clean. Some sample sentences
are presented below:
Life will be more beautiful if our environmental consciousness increases.People must do whatever they can do in order to protect our environment and nature.People devastate their environment and nature by eradicating plants and polluting seas.
Another theme frequently appearing in the pre-service teachers’ sentences was “environment
as a setting”. The responses of 14 students in the first implementation and the responses of 12
students in the second implementation involve this theme (Table 3). It is understood that the
pre-service teachers perceive environment as the place where people live, the place where
living beings live, and the place where living beings and non-living beings exist (Table 4).
Table 4. The theme of environment as a settingSub-theme 2nd grade 4th grade TotalThe place where people live 6 3 9The place where living beings live 2 4 6The place where living and non-living beings exist 7 5 12Total 15 12 27
As in the examples below, 6 pre-service teachers in the first implementation and 3 pre-service
teachers in the second implementation stated that environment is the place where people live.
Though a decrease occurred in the human-oriented perception of the pre-service teachers as a
result of the education they received, such perception was still continuing after the education.
The unit where people live in the same place.People need environment to live.People must know their environment and what kind of a living space they are in.
One of the most striking findings is that the number of the pre-service teachers perceiving
environment as a social living space, which was 15 in the first implementation, fell to 3 in the
second implementation. Some sample sentences are given below:
People in our environment are very friendly.Environment is the thing that involves everything making me the person I am: my friends, my family, my books, nature, and my hobbies.Environment may give color to human life, but it may also sadden it sometime.
1 pre-service teacher in the first implementation and 7 pre-service teachers in the second
implementation had the perception of environment as a system. Such increase in the number
of the pre-service teachers indicates that the education received by the pre-service teachers
switched environment perception from social understanding of environment to ecological
understanding of environment (Table 3).
Environment is an ecosystem established within an order.Environment is a system consisting of human beings, animals, houses, trees, and mountains.
4. DISCUSSION, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The number of responses to a keyword in WAT and the variety of these responses are
considered to be important signs of comprehension of these concepts (Bahar, Johnstone &
Sutcliffe, 1999; Shavelson, 1974). Increase in the number of responses to a keyword and the
variety of such responses implies an improvement in individuals’ cognitive structures and
perceptions. The analysis of the pre-service teachers’ responses indicates that their
perceptions regarding living elements of environment, non-living elements of environment,
and ecological concepts, which were under the natural environment theme, strengthened
while their perceptions regarding artificial environment weakened. In their study on the 4 th to
12th grade students, Shepardson, Wee, Priddy & Harbor (2007) determined that only natural
areas were regarded as environment. As in many studies contained in the literature (Özsoy,
2012; Shepardson, Wee, Priddy & Harbor, 2007; Shepardson, 2005), plants and animals,
which are among the living elements of environment, were emphasized by a lot of pre-service
teachers in the present study. The fact that though “fungi” and “microorganism” were added
to these answers in the second implementation, they were delivered by very few participants
shows that the pre-service teachers’ perceptions concerning the living elements of
environment were not improved completely. Improvement concerning non-living elements
remained much more limited. Although the responses “atmosphere”, “rain”, and “rock” were
added to the responses “air”, “sun”, “soil”, and “water” in the second implementation, these
responses were delivered by very few pre-service teachers. “Sun”, “water”, “mountain”, and
“lake” are emphasized in the studies contained in the literature (Barraza, 1999; Özsoy, 2012).
In a similar way to the present study, the studies in the literature also report that perceptions
regarding non-living elements are weaker than those regarding living element.
The research results indicate that in line with the increase in the number of the courses about
environment taken, the pre-service teachers associated the concept of environment with more
concepts in their cognitive structures, re-arranged their cognitive structures by adding new
concepts, and had an improvement in their conceptual perceptions. For example, the number
of lower level concepts such as “tree”, “flower”, “dog”, and “insect” falling under the “living
elements” sub-theme that were delivered by the pre-service teachers decreased from the first
implementation to the second implementation. Instead of them, higher level concepts such as
“plant” and “animal”, which include the other concepts, were delivered as responses more
frequently. Improvement in the pre-service teachers’ cognitive structures is evident in that
they emphasized ecological concepts such as “nature”, “forest”, and “ecosystem” more
frequently, added responses such as “habitat”, “bio-diversity”, “ecology”, “evolution”, and
“system” to these responses, put less emphasis on social environment in the sentences they
made, and had a more systematic perspective on environment in the second implementation.
Another finding supporting this result is that total frequency of the responses given in the
“environmental problems” theme increased a lot although the variety of such responses did
not change much. The reason is that although the number of the responses such as
“cigarette”, “smoke”, and “crowd” decreased, the responses “pollution” and “problem”,
which included all of these answers, were delivered by more pre-service teachers.
As in various studies (Yavetz, Goldman & Pe’er, 2014; Demirkaya, 2009), environment was
associated with social environment in the “artificial environment” theme. The big decrease in
the number of the responses falling under this theme in the second implementation especially
due to the reduction in the number of the responses such as “house”, “neighborhood/street”,
“country”, “province”, “garden”, and “park”, which are about the social aspect of
environment, shows that the pre-service teachers’ environmental perceptions switched from
social perception of environment to ecological perception of environment. Strengthening in
ecological perspective is also demonstrated by the drastic decrease in the number of the
sentences associated with the “environment as a social living space” theme.
The improvement in the pre-service teachers’ cognitive structures and environmental
perceptions remained limited, and they failed to comprehend the complex relationships
completely. This is clear in the sentences made by them. The perception of environment as
“the place where people live” weakened whereas the perception of environment as “the place
where living beings live” strengthened in the second implementation. In addition, a switch
occurred from “the place where living and non-living beings exist” perception in the first
implementation to “environment as a system” perception in the second implementation.
However, the number of the students with this perception increased up to only 7. This results
from the fact that environment and relations in the environment are a complex system.
Students have difficulty in establishing relationships between the levels in the system,
understanding the structure of the system as well as the mechanism and behaviors underlying
it, associating the situations at the high level of the system with the situations at its low level,
and associating the living elements of the system with its non-living elements (Hmelo, Holton
& Kolodner, 2000; Eberbach, Hmelo-Silver, Jordan & Sinha, 2012). To get rid of these
problems, basic concepts should be well-established, and it should be ensured that individuals
learn not only the visible aspects of the system but all aspects of it (Jordan, Brooks, Hmelo-
Silver, Eberbach & Sinha, 2014).
The comparison of two implementations with one another indicates that an improvement took
place in the pre-service teachers’ perceptions regarding environmental problems. This may be
because the pre-service teachers became more aware of the problems in their environments as
their education levels rose. The reason may also be that as the increase in environmental
problems has been felt in the daily life much in recent times, they have had a frequent
coverage on TV, newspapers, and social media. As a matter of fact, it is reported in a lot of
studies in the literature that little students often associate environment with environmental
problems (Barraza, 1999; Özsoy, 2012; Yardımcı & Bağcı Kılıç, 2010). Not a big difference
occurred in the pre-service teachers’ responses in which they expressed their feelings and
situations about environment. It is reported in various studies that affection towards the
nature is influential on eagerness to protect it and making behavioral decisions concerning it,
and the time spent in the nature and the personal experience gained in the nature are
influential on strengthening affection towards the nature (Kals, Schumacher & Montada,
1999; Müller, Kals & Pansa, 2009). Hence, it is possible to say that in the environment
education, developing positive emotions towards the nature is as important as developing an
accurate cognitive structure and a proper environmental perception. Therefore, integrating the
environment education courses with nature education and field works, besides the formal
processes at school, is deemed important to accomplish the goals of environment education in
an effective way.
The analysis of the sentences made by the pre-service teachers indicates that the pre-service
teachers’ perception of “environment which needs to be protected” increasingly continued in
the second implementation. This may have resulted from the effectiveness of the courses they
received. The reason may also be that they lived in a city with high pollution and personally
experienced the problems in the period between the two implementations. Özdemir (2010)
also stresses that students noticing deteriorations and problems in their immediate
environment develop environmental anxiety and reaction. One of the common points of
almost all the studies on environmental perception is that the participants definitely put an
emphasis on environmental problems and associate environment with environmental
problems (Barrazza, 1999; Özsoy, 2012; Shepardson, Wee, Priddy & Harbor, 2007; Yardımcı
& Bağcı Kılıç, 2010). The pre-service teachers touched on especially the impacts of human
beings on environment and the impacts of environmental problems on human beings, but they
ignored the harms environmental problems bring to other living beings. Hence, it can be said
that they maintained their human-oriented perspective despite the improvement in their
cognitive structures. Most of the pre-service teachers participating in the studies of Desjean-
Perrotta, Moseley and Cantu (2008), and Moseley, Desjean‐Perrotta and Utley (2010) were
also seen to have a human-oriented perspective. Yavetz, Goldman and Pe’er (2014)
determined that the participants to teach in environment-related fields had similar
environmental perceptions to the participants to teach in other fields. Failure in understanding
the integrated nature of environment is a big shortcoming especially for the teachers that give
courses about environment education. The limited improvement in the pre-service teachers’
perceptions despite the courses they receive and the progress they make in their educational
life (i.e. rising to a higher education level) makes it necessary to improve teacher training
programs and follow practice-based teaching processes.
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