Physics Teachers’ Perceptions on Sustainable Physics Education

Abstract

The United Nation 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development advocates teachers as the key in, and for, sustainable development. Surprisingly, while physics teachers have long been recognized as important agents in equipping students with necessary physics knowledge and scientific inquiry skills, nonetheless less attention is paid to explore physics teachers’ perceptions on sustainable physics education (SPE). The absence of robust research that explores physics teachers’ perceptions to SPE has informed this research. A total of 248 Malaysian physics teachers were involved in a survey consisting of both close and open-ended questions to capture their perceptions of SPE. In examining the differences in physics teachers’ perceptions of SPE, with regards to teaching experiences and educational background, the one-way ANOVA was utilized. Whereas thematic analysis was used to analyze responses from the open-ended questions. The main finding of this research is the novice physics teachers expressed more positive views of SPE, where they posed better understanding and greatly valued physics competencies when compared to the other teaching experiences groups. The understandings of sustainability among physics teachers were largely dominated by environmental foci. This research provides vital information to design effective teacher professional development targeting novice physics teachers in order to implement SPE effectively. Keywords: physics education, education for sustainable development, physics teacher, teachers’ perception.

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