Abstract:

In this study, the effect of nature education activities in an environmental project, which was supported by TUBITAK, on the change of the levels of environmental literacy of pre-service teachers and their thoughts about the nature education were aimed to investigate. Study was designed in one group pre-test post-test pattern. Research participants were 20 pre-service teachers from different universities education faculties and different departments of the faculties. Environmental literacy scale that was applied as pre- and post-test and a form consisting of open-ended questions were used to gather the research data. Quantitative data were analyzed by using paired samples t-test by comparing the scores of pre- and post-tests. Content analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data. Results show that pre-service teachers’ environmental literacy post-test scores were higher than their pre-test scores. The increase in environmental perception was significant. Participants of this research state that they obtained some gains with the nature education like awareness about environmental issues, improvement in environmental conscious, contribution to their professional development and learning how theoretical knowledge can put into application

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