Environmental Literacy: Comparison between Chemistry Teacher Candidates, Chemistry Teachers, and Individuals in Environmentally Related Professions

Abstract

An essential component of preventing environmental issues is environmental education. Environmental education's primary goal is to raise people's environmental literacy—their understanding and sensitivity to the environment. The purpose of this study is to compare the environmental literacy of chemistry teacher candidates, chemistry teachers, and environmentally related professions in terms of their awareness of environmental issues, knowledge, attitude, and use. It also seeks to find out how gender and experience affect environmental literacy. A total of 793 people from three groups participated in the study. Participants completed an environmental literacy scale that included components for environmental knowledge, environmental attitude, environmental concern, and environmental use. According to the results of the research, it was determined that the three participant groups were sufficient in the components of environmental attitude, environmental use, and environmental concern, but their level of knowledge about environmental issues was not sufficient. Considering the total environmental literacy scores of the study groups, a statistically significant difference was determined in favor of chemistry teachers compared to the other groups. In addition, it was determined that the level of environmental literacy differed according to the o gender and professional experience of teachers.