Abstract:

The environment is currently a social variable that has a high impact on citizens. Proof of this are the numerous meetings of world interest whose aim is respect for the environment. In this line, the General Assembly of the United Nations pointed out that education is an essential tool to adequately instruct about environmental issues in society, concerning values, abilities, knowledge or skills. This work has focused on the concept of waste from the point of view of sustainable development, which is one of the most popular environmental education concepts in recent years. Previous studies have analyzed the treatment given to this concept in the current educational system, in order to study its relevance and encourage its delivery during the school stage. Based on these previous studies, the general objective of the present research is to diagnose and evaluate the attitudes and the level of environmental awareness on waste of teachers of science in training. Specifically, the participant sample, selected through a non-probabilistic sampling of convenience due to the ease of access, was composed by students of the Master’s Degree in Teacher Training in Secondary Education. These students, science teachers in training, belong to different scientific specialties, such as biology, physics, chemistry or engineering. The choice of this sample was motivated by the need, from an environmental education point of view, to analyze the attitude of future secondary school teachers when explaining concepts related to waste, because the scientific training of future generations is in their hands. As a measurement instrument, a 30-item survey based on a 0 to 5 points Likert scale was designed and elaborated. The survey was developed based on the results obtained in the study of the analysis of the concept of waste in the current curriculum. Specifically, the survey items were divided into five categories (with six items in each category): Waste and Society (CAT I), Normative and Economy (CAT II), Awareness (CAT III), Technological Development (CAT IV) and Typology (CAT V). The items were written in the first person to analyze degrees of environmental awareness and acceptance, both positive and negative in the different categories established. For the validation of the survey, various reliability indexes were calculated. The statistical analysis of the data obtained in this study shows differences depending on the categories examined, revealing the need to promote an attitude improvement towards certain environmental actions related to the customary conditions of teachers and students.

Keywords:

Science teaching, Teacher training, Environmental education, Attitudes, Waste.