CAREER: Developing Elementary Teachers’ Self-Efficacy to Teach about Climate Change Using Community-Based Practices

Florida State University, Tallahassee FL

Investigators

Abstract

Climate change is a critical 21st-century issue. This project will support pre-service and in-service teachers in professional development that will prepare them to teach about climate change in community-specific ways. This project aims to advance elementary teachers' development in three high-impact areas: (a) their self-efficacy toward teaching climate change science or beliefs and attitudes about teaching climate change science; (b) their science content knowledge around climate change; and (c) their climate change identity, or how they view their agency and role in climate change. Participating in-service teachers will co-design a climate change instructional model by adding activities to the Global Climate Change and Urban Heat Island WISE unit and lessons around locally relevant phenomena--such as biodiversity loss and deforestation. The lessons will engage students in exploring the relationship between local environmental change and global climate systems through the use of data, simulations, and models. Community and school-based gardens are proposed as an instructional approach to support teachers in contextualizing climate science, building partnerships, and facilitating student learning through hands-on environmental action. These spaces are intended to serve as living laboratories that connect science content with students' experiences and local ecosystems. This CAREER award is funded by the Discovery Research preK-12 program (DRK-12) which seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools. Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. This project will implement a community-based science instructional model using the web-based inquiry science environment (WISE) as a tool to support pre-service and in-service teachers' self-efficacy, climate change identity, and science content knowledge and examine the effect of participation across the three high-impact areas. Data collected include pre- and post-test of teachers' climate change knowledge, interview data and survey data from a survey to be developed that measures teachers' climate change identity. Results from this project will contribute developmentally appropriate foundational knowledge around climate change education in elementary science education programs by introducing pre-service teachers to climate change education and building their self-efficacy for teaching it. It will also provide in-service elementary teachers with professional activities to increase their climate change self-efficacy. Key contributions include the development, refinement, and dissemination of climate change instructional models (e.g., instructional materials, website materials, teacher workshops) to understand and enhance pre-service and in-service elementary teachers' self-efficacy toward climate change education as a part of the project's educational activities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.