The Effect Of Green Chemistry Experiments On Environmental Values And Knowledge And Chemistry Concepts Among Pre-Service Teachers
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Date
2009-12
Authors
Karpudewan, Mageswary
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
To achieve the status of education for sustainable development, the teaching and learning must accomplish in bringing changes in environmental values of the students. Pedagogical knowledge plays an important role in the process of conveying values, skills, perspectives and ethics meaningfully. Hence, teachers need to be educated with knowledge of environmental issues and ways it can be incorporated into their teaching. This study was conducted with the aim of introducing green chemistry experiments as a laboratory- based pedagogy as well as to evaluate the effect of these green chemistry experiments on the pre-service teachers’ environmental values and knowledge and chemistry knowledge. Questionnaire survey, interviews and observation were conducted to measure the changes in the dependent variables. Questionnaire on Environmental Values was used to measure the environmental value change, Test on Environmental Knowledge to measure the acquisition of environmental concepts and Chemistry Achievement Test to measure the acquisition of chemistry concepts. Interviews and observations were conducted to get in-depth information on the outcome of the quantitative analysis. The study involved 110 pre-service teachers enrolled in a chemistry teaching methods course. A total of 10 green chemistry experiments were developed for use as reference and tutorial activities. Repeated measure MANOVA, Univariate Analysis of Variance and simple interaction analysis were used to look into the changes in the dependent variables. For environmental value, there are significant changes in the overall environmental, egocentric orientation and ecocentric orientation. However, for homocentric category the changes are not significant. For environmental concepts, both Traditional Environmental Concept and Sustainable Development Concepts scores improve significantly. For chemistry concepts, paired sample t-test indicate that the difference between mean score of test 1 and test 2 is significant. Interview responses indicate that firstly, environmental values of the pre-service teachers has changed significantly from initially being egocentric towards homocentric and ecocentric. Secondly, the course has influenced their environmental awareness and concern. Thirdly, the course also contributed to the behavioral changes. The pre-services claimed that the course was interesting and have enlightened them. Observation confirmed the interview outcomes. As such, green chemistry is one approach that could be adapted to impart knowledge and inculcate values that would nurture sustainable behaviors.
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Keywords
The Effect Of Green Chemistry Experiments , Environmental Values And Knowledge And Chemistry Concepts Among Pre-Service Teachers