Unprepared to Deal with Invasion: Pre-Service Teachers’ Perception, Knowledge and Attitudes toward Invasive Species

Abstract

The serious and growing impacts of invasive alien species (IAS) on the planet make it necessary to include this issue with greater determination in educational programs, with the aim of generating citizens capable of dealing with this environmental problem in a sustainable way. Likewise, the management of IAS represents a clear socio-scientific issue (SSI), which gives greater interest to its inclusion in school. At this point, future teachers play a key role, so that their knowledge, perceptions and attitudes on the subject must be evaluated. In order to deal with this objective, a questionnaire was filled out by 400 students of the degrees in early childhood education and primary education of the Universities of La Rioja (UR) and the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Spain. Our results show that pre-service teachers do not perceive impacts of different types generated by IAS, and they show a clear lack of knowledge about transmission vectors. Likewise, they do not support various control measures, especially slaughter of invasive vertebrates, related to affective dimensions. These results highlight the need to work toward an appropriate integration of this issue at different educational levels, training students and educators, fostering favorable attitudes toward a sustainable management of IAS.

The educational community and its knowledge and perceptions of native and invasive alien species

“…hexapetala native to South America and invasive in Europe; and I. pseudacorus native to Europe and invasive in South America) 34 , 35 . Biological invasions will continue to increase—often at accelerating rates—in the next three decades 36 impacting on biodiversity, ecology, and socio-economic and human health systems 22 and demanding urgent management policies 20 , 37 – 39 . It is relevant because acceptance of IAS management (e.g., control or removal techniques) could be related to having a background of environmental knowledge 4 , 10 , 26 .…”

“…In the context of formal education, curricula should promptly acquire changes to reach the expected goals successfully, including hands-on learning activities and formal outside learning, not only in subjects like biology, but also in a cross-curricular approach at schools and universities 3 , 4 , 7 , 10 , 22 . For instance, a stronger focus on species taxonomy might help teachers to share this knowledge in class 10 , 37 , 38 .…”

“…The topic of biological invasions is relatively new and it has only recently become relevant to environmental educators 4 . Several studies have evaluated the perception of students (children and teenagers) and student teachers 4 , 7 , 9 , 10 , 21 , 22 , about biodiversity and IAS in countries such Argentina, Brazil, USA, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. While Gayford 2 studied perception and understanding of student from their teachers perspective in UK, no studies have analysed such perception in teachers yet.…”

Integrating Perspectives from Education for Sustainable Development to Foster Plant Awareness among Trainee Science Teachers: A Mixed Methods Study

“…A 30-item questionnaire (Table 2) was utilized to measure five components of plant awareness: attention, attitude, interest, knowledge, and self-efficacy to teach about plants, as translated from previous studies [13,54]. Prior to data collection, the translated draft was reviewed by an external team of reviewers, including an experienced science school teacher, a botanical expert from a national research agency, and a lecturer from a faculty of education.…”

Students’ systems thinking while modeling a dynamic ecological system

“…To deal with such global challenges, a comprehensive understanding of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is critical for constructive policy and management (Early et al, 2016). Future generations must be prepared for these tasks by developing a holistic understanding of global changes facing the world community (NGSS Lead States, 2013;Ladrera et al, 2020). This issue persists, as the findings of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) reveal that students with little knowledge and skills have naïve and unrealistic ideas about the self-regulation of the world, whereas scientifically educated students are able to make realistic assessments based on ethical reasoning (OECD, 2022).…”