A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS OF PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’

PERCEPTIONS OF ENVIRONMENT*

Elif ÖZATA YÜCEL

Kocaeli University, Faculty of Education, 41380, Kocaeli, Turkey, elif.ozata@kocaeli.edu.tr

Muhlis ÖZKAN

Uludag University, Faculty of Education, 16059, Bursa, Tukey muozkan@uludag.edu.tr

* 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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