Effects of an environmental education intervention on pre-service teachers' environmental perceptions

Environmental worldview may be described as the way an individual sees the relationship between humans and nature. One way of determining an individuals' environmental worldview is through the measurement of environmental perception. This research investigates the environmental perceptions of preservice teachers in the teacher education program in an Ontario university's faculty of education. Using a questionnaire designed to measure environmental perception, and interviews, data indicated that preservice teachers have generally pro-environmental perceptions with respect to environmental preservation, and this increased after a class on EE. Participants were highly anthropocentric in their worldview, although they were generally not aware of this. In addition, participants were enthusiastic about the idea of teaching EE, but there were many misconceptions and a lack of understanding about how to achieve this. This research indicates that increased EE of preservice teachers may be needed to improve the likelihood that they will contribute to effective EE as professional teachers in public schools.