Environmental Literacy of Beginner Teacher Training Students, Israel
Yavetz, Bela
Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel-Aviv, Israel
Goldman, Daphne
Beit Berl Academic College, Kfar-Sava, Israel
Pe’er, Sara
Oranim Academic College of Education, Tivon, Israel
ABSTRACT
Insufficient teacher training has been identified as a major cause of curriculum
failure of environmental education (EE). Hence, a major challenge facing EE today is
to strengthen the environmental literacy (EL) component of pre-service teachers’
programs. The aims of this study were to characterize the EL level of beginner
students in teacher training colleges. The study was conducted by a survey
administered to 765 beginner students from three major teacher–training colleges.
Factor analysis of responses to statements dealing with environmental behavior
grouped these statements into six categories representing increasing levels of
environmental commitment. A negative relationship was found between the frequency
at which students performed each behavior category and the environmental
commitment level of the category. Overall score of students' attitudes towards
environmental issues was higher than that of their reported environmental behavior.
Students' knowledge of ecological and environmental subjects was very limited. This