The Impact of the Environmental Documentary Movies on Pre-service German Teachers’ Environmental Attitudes

Abstract

This study examines the environmental attitudes of Turkish pre-service teachers of German as a foreign language using the German version of The Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (RNEP) and aims to compare New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) level of participants before and after a larger research project that uses documentary movies as a language teaching material. The comparisons were made according to demographic variables such as gender, age, education and language level when determining the NEP levels. A total of 170 pre-service German teachers (147 females, 23 males; age 17-32) contributed to the study. The findings from the present study indicate that environmental education is the most consistent factor in its relationship to levels of environmental concern, which was supported by the previous literature. The results suggest that trans-disciplinary environmental education is prior and necessary for individuals to increase their awareness and to develop abilities to reflect on their environmental responsibilities. The results of the present study also evidence that the use of environmental documentary movies have an important potential to foster environmental awareness of pre-service teachers.

Becoming a competent teacher in education for sustainable development

“…This finding is in line with the slightly stronger proenvironmental attitudes of the 2 nd -semester cohort. Both cohorts came into their respective courses with strong pro-environmental attitudes, which were notably higher compared with other student cohorts, such as undergraduate psychology students at the University of Utah (Amburgey and Thoman, 2012), Turkish pre-service German teachers (Alyaz et al, 2016), and 1 st -year students from five different programs at Otago University in New Zealand (Harraway et al, 2012). However, this finding may not indicate a more pro-environmental student population per se as our sample consisted predominately of female students, who have been repeatedly shown to have more pro-environmental worldviews (Zelezny et al, 2000;Shephard et al, 2009).…”

Winter, Her Dolphin Tale, and the Rise of Environmental Education

“…It was proposed that a story about an injured dolphin could help to develop awareness of socio-environmental impacts, given that movies capture attention and thereby help students acquire information and recall concepts (Kavan & Burne, 2009). Information provided by movies and documentaries can provide influence on attitudes toward the environment (Alyaz et al, 2017).…”

Παιδαγωγική Αξιοποίηση Παιδικών Ταινιών Στο Πλαίσιο Της Περιβαλλοντικής Εκπαίδευσης Στο Νηπιαγωγείο

“…Η βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση έδειξε ότι δεν συνηθίζεται να χρησιμοποιούνται οι παιδικές ταινίες στην εκπαίδευση, οι περισσότεροι εκπαιδευτικοί περιορίζονται σε ορισμένα βίντεο και εάν προβάλουν κάποια ταινία αρκούνται στην απλή συζήτηση της με τα παιδιά στην τάξη. Παρόλα αυτά η χρήση των παιδικών ταινιών περιβαλλοντικού περιεχομένου σε μαθητές προσχολικής ηλικίας φαίνεται να μπορεί να τους ευαισθητοποιήσει σημαντικά έναντι άλλων εκπαιδευτικών προσεγγίσεων (Alyaz, Isigicok & Gursoy, 2016).…”