Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
The National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), California, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 17 - 21 Nisan 2009, ss.228
People’s understanding about a scientific topic is related to their point of view about knowledge, in other words, their epistemological
beliefs (Kardash & Scholes, 1996; Schommer, Crouse, & Rhodes, 1992). Therefore, it is required to investigate the effects of people’s
epistemological beliefs on their attitude and behavior about the environmental issues. Teachers play central role in attaining the goals of
the environmental education and have multiplier effects on future generations’ awareness, thus, the aim of this study was to find relationships between preservice teachers’ (PTs) environmental behavior and their epistemological beliefs. The instruments to be used for detecting PTs is, Environmental Literature Test, developed by National Environmental Education and Training Foundation (NEETF & Roper,
2005), and that for detecting epistemological beliefs is the Schommer’s (1990) questionnaire on the Epistemological beliefs. Sample of
this study constituted 560 PTs from of a university. Multiple Regression analysis results indicated that for environmental behavior mean
scores, three of the predictors - attitude, concern and innate ability- contributed significantly to the model. These three factors explained
the 32, 6 % of the variability in the environmental behavior mean scores (adjusted R2 = 0,326, F (3, 553) =90,081, p < .00).