Perception of Climate Change: Reasons, Consequences, and Willingness to Act. How Aware are They?

Abstract

This paper reports a study conducted to investigate social studies and science teachers' awareness on climate change and how professional development workshop "Awareness and Adaptation to Climate Change" affects teachers' awareness level. For this purpose, a total of 101 teachers from 8 different cities and 4 geographical locations participated in the workshops and took part in the study. For data collection purposes, the Awareness to Climate Change Questionnaire (ACCQ) was used. Analysis revealed no statistical difference among participating teachers' awareness level based on pre-test scores. The results show that although the environmental education community has spent significant time and energy in developing and disseminating alternative instructional strategies for use in all classroom levels, the conception of the climate change as a unity of interrelated elements, as a system, remains negligible.