Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Perceptions of the Environment: The Created Difference after Taking an Environmental Education Course

Abstract Book of the 5th International Education Conference

Year: 2026

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Pre-Service Early Childhood Teachers’ Perceptions of the Environment: The Created Difference after Taking an Environmental Education Course

Dr. Nur Alacam

ABSTRACT:

Educators have crucial roles in fostering students’ emotional engagement with the environmental concepts and the issues. Environmental education has an important role in creating this consciousness, and it is essential to develop pre-service teachers’ systematic vision of environment to enable them to raise environmentally conscious citizens. This study investigated pre-service early childhood teachers’ systematic vision and perceptions of the environment in the process of an environmental education course. Convenience sampling was employed, and data were collected from 55 participants, enrolled in the environmental education course in a public university in north side of Türkiye. It was investigated through their drawings and reflections and then analyzed with content analysis. As a result, the findings showed that the majority of the pre-service teachers have a high level of complexity in their vision by representing different elements of the environment together. They reflected interactions between the elements after taking the environmental education course in comparison to their prior views. It was concluded that environmental education is influential in creating awareness on pre-service teachers regarding the interactive components of the environment.

Keywords: Early Childhood Education; Teacher Education; Systematic Vision; Environment; Environmental Education