A study on Developing a Behaviour Scale towards Sustainable Environmental Education

Abstract

Sustainability is a term that presented itself especially in the late 1970s, when there was a considerable increase in environmental problems. In general, it can be defined as satisfying the present requirements with a consideration into future needs without using up natural resources. It is clear that education is part of the process of achieving it. Accordingly, sustainable environmental education includes enabling individuals to gain an awareness of environmental issues, to attain certain values and attitudes, and to adopt positive behaviours. The purpose of this study is to develop a valid and reliable scale regarding sustainable environmental education. The study was implemented on a total of 409 prospective teachers at Ahi Evran University. It was based on the 5-point Likert scale and consisted of 29 items. The data were transferred to the SPSS 15.0. Afterwards, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted on the data. The analysis yielded that the scale had three dimensions. In addition, Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the scale was found to be 0.944.