ENVIRONMENTAL KNOWLEDGE AND BEHAVIOUR OF SOCIAL STUDIES PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH-WEST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The sustained misuse and exploitation of the environment by man has been linked to ignorance of the consequences of man’s action and the need to change this behaviour had led to concerted efforts by some concerned environmentalists on how to arrest the deteriorating ecosystem, through education. Environmental Education in Social Studies, have been seen as a potent
tool that can bring about  positive attitude and behavior that are needed to protect the environment. Therefore, this study examined the environmental knowledge and behaviour of Social Studies pre-service teachers’ in Colleges of Education in South-west, Nigeria. The study adopted the cross–sectional survey research design. The population for this sturdy comprised all 200 level Social Studies Pre-service Teachers in all Colleges of Education in South-west, Nigeria. Participants for the study were chosen from six colleges of education from three states in South west. Simple random sampling technique was employed in selecting 60 students per institution totaling 360 respondents for the study. Two instruments namely: KECT (r=0.88) ERBS (r=0.76), were used to gather data. The data generated were analysed using the frequency, means and standard deviation. Results showed that 39.7% of the preservice teachers had partial level of environmental knowledge and 60.3% had adequate level of environmental knowledge. Results of second research question shows that 6.7% of respondents rarely exhibited environmental responsible behaviour whereas, 68.9% occasionally exhibited environmentally behaviour and 24.4% of them frequently exhibited environmental responsible behaviour. Therefore, it was recommended that pre-service teachers at all levels should be exposed to environmental education. Also, emphasis should be based on simplifying the methods and strategies of teaching environmental education concepts.