Exploring environmental literacy through demographic variables

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the effect of selected demographic variables on pre-service teachers’
environmental literacy. Although there are several demographic variables to have some degree of relationship with
components of environmental literacy, gender, academic major, and grade level are chosen to investigate further in
the Turkish context because of their prevalent usage in earlier studies. The sample of the study is comprised of 560
pre-service teachers enrolled in different academic majors. Environmental Literacy Test (ELT) was used as an
instrument to assess environmental literacy and MANOVA was performed to investigate differences of PTs’
environmental literacy in terms demographic variables. Findings of the study indicated that gender, year of
enrollment, and academic major had significant effect on components of environmental literacy.