Teach it to sustain it! Environmental attitudes of Hungarian teacher training students in Serbia

Abstract

Environmental education plays a crucial role in children’s education, familiarizing them with the concept of sustainability and developing their environmental consciousness. Conversely, it also becomes necessary for teachers to live in an environmentally conscious way and to represent the standpoint of sustainable development and its practice. The present research introduces a longitudinal survey of teaching students’ environmental attitude values attending University of Novi Sad, Hungarian Language Teacher Training Faculty in Subotica between 2012 and 2015. Three separate environmental attitude measure scales (CHEAKS, RevNEP, ENV) were applied in order to assess the extent to which the undergraduate educational content contributed to the realization of sustainability education. The research results demonstrate that the environmental attitudes of students have significantly increased by the end of their undergraduate education. It has also been concluded that the currently implemented curriculum, which incorporates natural science and methodological elements, contributes the most to the successful development of positive attitudes toward sustainability, as well as the formation of adequate skills and key competences. This study directly facilitates the institution’s function and contributes to the professional development of its lecturers and students, as well as establishing a team of researchers focusing on environmental education.