AN INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS AFFECTING PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS AWARENESS IN RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES

Year 2016, Volume: 4 , 269 - 275, 01.09.2016

Osman Mutlu Yüksel Köseoğlu

Abstract

Due to increasing energy demands
and environmental problems in burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gas),
interest on renewable energy sources has been increased. Scientists try to find
new and more effective ways to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy
resources. Science teachers’ knowledge, attitude and awareness plays an
important role for the future. Because, they will be bringing up future
generations of school children so that energy can be utilized efficiently. Few
studies have explored teachers’ awareness level about renewable energy
resources, but there is no available instrument that assesses all science
teachers’ (physics, chemistry and biology) renewable energy awareness.
Pre-service science teachers were asked to write a composition about their
feelings, opinions, and attitudes towards renewable energy and explorative
literature study was conducted to gather an initial pool of items. Item
selection took place using qualitative and quantitative methods.
Expert-analysis was used for screening the relevance. Exploratory factor
analysis with promax rotation was used to determine construct validity and
Cronbach's coefficient alpha determined the scale's internal consistency
reliability. The instrument demonstrated high internal consistency (alpha
0.90). Exploratory factor analysis yielded a five-component structure termed
Expectations from authorities, Relationship between renewable energy and
environment, Comparison of renewable energy resources with fossil fuels,
environmental awareness and Suitability of country for renewable energy; each
sub-scale demonstrated satisfactory consistency: 0.85; 0.82; 0.71; 0.76; 0.82
respectively. The 32-item scale is easy to complete and to administer. This study has also investigated effect of
gender and subject of pre-service science teachers on the awareness scale, and
the relationship between effect of teachers’ subject and awareness of
pre-service science teachers. The development of a new and reliable
awareness scale to identify pre-service science teachers’ attitudes towards
renewable energy resources will enable researchers to explore the relationships
between science teachers' attitudes and their demographic and education-related
characteristics. 

Keywords

Renewable energy education, awareness, energy literacy, preservice science teachers

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