Abstract
INVESTIGATION OF THE FIELD TRIP METHODS’ EFFECTIVENESS: AS A WAY OF IMPROVING PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ VIEWS ON ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of field trip method on preservice teachers’ views on nature and environmental education. The study was carried out with twenty eight preservice teachers from diverse departments in Faculty of Education in accordance with the one group pre-test post-test design as one of the pre-experimental designs. At the stage of data collection, four open-ended questions were prepared and administered to all preservice teachers in the sample of the study. Data gathered at first and final week of the field trip were compared in a qualitative approach using content and frequency analysis. In conclusion, before field trip, most of them failed to describe the nature and could not offer any substantial educational suggestions to bring about more effective teaching of environmental education. After field trip, preservice teachers put forward such environmental problems including natural disasters, biological diversity, deforestation, air pollution, soil pollution, water contamination, noise pollution, deficiency of infrastructure, chemicals and agricultural activities. Lastly, they stated that they improved their knowledge about nature and environmental education and they planned to use it in their own professional careers.
Keywords
Environmental education, environmental issues, field trip method
