Climate change? Who knows? A comparison of secondary students and pre-service teachers

Abstract

In the context of recently published academic discrepancies between Queensland students and students from other Australian states, final year pre-service teachers were surveyed to explore their understanding and knowledge of climate change. Their responses were compared to those of secondary students to discern any significant gains in knowledge as a consequence of tertiary teacher training. Responses from a survey completed by a sample of 107 pre-service teachers and 310 grade 10 secondary students were examined for their level of understanding and knowledge, models of explanation and sources of information of the phenomenon. Results showed similarities between the two groups, with knowledge and understanding of climate change remaining unacceptably low in preservice teachers, including those secondary specialists citing science and environmental studies (SOSE) as their focus of study. The study highlights the need to develop tertiary science curricula to bridge pre-service teachers' knowledge and understanding gaps of important school curriculum topics while embedding these in broader considerations of curriculum planning.