An Investigation of Prospective Teachers’ Attitudes Towards National Parks and Views on Ecology-Based Environmental Education

Abstract

In this study, it was aimed to determine prospective social studies and elementary education teachers’ attitudes towards national parks and views on ecology-based environmental education. In this study, which was conducted following the stated purpose, an educational practice was carried out in Termessos National Park (Antalya) for two days in 2018 with a total of 26 prospective teachers enrolled at faculty of education at Akdeniz University, of whom 11 from social studies education and 15 from elementary education. In the study, in which a mixed research design was employed, the “Attitude Towards National Parks Scale” developed by Deniş, Genç, and Demirkaya (2008) was used as a data collection tool. Pretest and posttest analyses of the data were conducted using SPSS to determine the effect of ecology-based environmental education given in the specified national park on the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards national parks. In the qualitative part of the study, the participants’ views on ecology-based environmental education were elicited through interviews conducted before and after the practice education with the help of the “interview form for ecology-based environmental education,” which was developed by the researchers. The data obtained were subjected to content analysis, which is one of the qualitative analysis techniques. The results revealed that the practice “Ecology-based Environmental Education in a National Park” positively affected the prospective teachers’ attitudes towards national parks and contributed positively to their views on ecology-based environmental education.