LEVEL OF AWARENESS OF CLIMATE CHANGE CONCEPTS AND ISSUES AMONG PRE-SERVICE CHEMISTRY TEACHERS AT MUFULIRA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION IN ZAMBIA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the level of awareness of climate change concepts and issues among the pre-service chemistry teachers at Mufulira College of Education in Zambia. The study was motivated by the need to enable teachers and learners address climate change challenges which are among the issues facing the world today. The study used a qualitative survey targeted at all the 334 pre-service chemistry teachers from Mufulira College of Education as at 2021 when the research was carried out. However, data was only collected from 303 participants who completed questionnaires, representing a response rate of over 90%. The survey explored the students’ awareness levels on the different causes of climate change, the impact of climate change on the environment and the students’ ability to recognize the different mitigation measures of climate change. The study established that on average 60% of the students could only go as far as recalling concepts and issues of climate change but could not critically explain how climate change was caused and why it was a threat to the environment. At the same time climate change issues and concepts did not form part of the priorities for assessment in the pre-service chemistry curriculum at the selected college. It is recommended that a policy is created that ensures that climate change issues and concepts are given the attention they deserve. There is need to urgently develop teaching and learning materials on climate change education for the pre-service chemistry education curriculum.