The Relationship between Teacher Candidates' Environmental Risk Perceptions and Problem Solving Skills

Abstract

Problem Statement: Various environmental problems are related with wrong risk perception about the environment as well as insufficient interest, behavior, information and environmental perception. Although there are social concerns related with environmental problems, it can be seen that environmental problems have become a greater threat in time. People react to the threats they perceive. If their perceptions are not correct, their efforts for protecting society and environment may be misevaluated. The main goal of environmental education and risk communication can be summarized as making individuals and society understand and perceive the environment and environmental problems correctly (Hines, Hungerford and Tomera, 1986; Hungerford and Volk, 1990; Wilson, 1990; akt: Altunoglu and Atav; 2009). However, there are limited studies were encountered on teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and their problem solving skills during literature review. Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the study was to determine the relationship between elementary teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and their problem solving skills and answers were sought to the following questions: 1) What is the relationship between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and their problem solving skills? 2) Is there a significant difference between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and sub-dimensions of their problem solving skills and gender variable? 3) Is there a significant difference between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and sub-dimensions of their problem solving skills and variable of the program they studied? 4) What is the relationship between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and sub-dimensions of their problem solving skills? Method(s): The sample of research was teacher candidates from the elementary class and science programs of education faculty in Siirt University 204 students participated in the research study. In the research by Slimak and Dietz (2006) developed risk scale which consists of 24 items and adapted to Turkish by Altunoglu & Atay (2009) were used in order to collect information about environmental risk perception and problem solving skills inventory developed by Heppner and Peterson (1982) which consists of 35 items and adapted to Turkish by Sahin, Sahin & Heppner (1993). In order to understand the gathered data, besides the arithmetic mean and standard deviation of the variables, independent t-test and Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient are used in the data analysis process. Findings and Results: The findings, obtained from the Pearson's moment correlation analysis to determine the relationship between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and problem-solving skills. A positive significant relationship (r = .308, p < 0.01), at a moderate level, was determined between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and problemsolving skills. Conclusions and Recommendations: When the relationship between teacher candidates' environmental risk perceptions and sub-dimensions of their problem solving skills were examined, it was identified that there was a positive significant relationship between their planned, considerate, self-confident, avoidant and evaluative approaches; however, it was found that there was a positive but not a significant relationship between teacher candidates' hasty approach and their environmental risk perceptions.