A Pedagogical Dimension to the Technocratic Problem of Water Management: Preschool Teacher Beliefs and Attitudes Towards Teaching Water Science and Sustainable Management of Water in the Context of Environmental Education

• Main Authors: E. Bourotzoglou, D. Emmanouloudis, A. Georgopoulos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology 2016-05-01
• Series: Journal of Engineering Science and Technology Review
• Subjects: Water; Sustainable management; Environmental education; Preschool teachers Beliefs and attitudes ____________________________________________________________
• Online Access: http://www.jestr.org/downloads/Volume9Issue2/fulltext21922016.pdf

Future generations are necessary to become conscious of water environmental problems, since preschool age, as they will be forced to manage them in the future. Experiential Environmental Education is a tool for sustainable management of water resources, but the key to this process is teachers and the factors that shape their readiness to fulfill their role. In this research their beliefs and attitudes are being investigated, as they influence the quality of teaching and environmental awareness of children. Specifically, 128 preschool teachers from North Greece were interviewed on how they perceive a) their Willingness to improve their skills and knowledge on the scientific subject of water and its sustainable management, b) their Comfort in teaching these subjects and c) their Familiarity with the content knowledge, pedagogical teaching methods of preschool and environmental education and developmentally appropriate activities for teaching these subjects according to Psychology. In addition, it explores preschool teacher’s beliefs and attitudes d) about whether water science and sustainable management of water could keep Child’s Interest and e) if it contributes to Child Benefit, raising children’s awareness of environmental issues and developing his/her language, art, math, technological and social skills. Correlation Analysis showed that preschool teacher’s beliefs and attitudes towards teaching the subject of water were positive but under certain preconditions (they do not have the Willingness to spend time creating materials, they do not need more scientific knowledge, they do not consider children’s experimentation as the best way of learning, the ‘creative clutter’ caused by experimentation annoys them, they are not willing to engage in children’s experimentation with water, watching what children do, what they say or ask and they do not consider more activities with water necessary). However, these items of the Scale may constitute basic preconditions of Experiential Environmental Education. Following the findings of our research, we propose organizing experiential educational activities for teachers that may enhance preschool Teacher Willingness.