Teachers' Perceptions of Teaching Environmental Issues within the Science Curriculum: A Hong Kong Perspective

Abstract

The present study was an exploratory study of Hong Kong secondary school Integrated Science teachers' perceptions of environmental education. Both questionnaire survey and interviews were used. Teachers were classified according to their scores of attitudes, perceived barriers, and current emphasis on teaching environmental education. This study found that Integrated Science teachers' attitudes toward environmental education, skills of teaching environmental education, beliefs in the relevance of Integrated Science to environmental education, and intentions of teaching environmental education in Integrated Science classes were associated with their actual ways of teaching of environmental education. Teachers tended to teach more environmental education if they held more favorable attitudes toward environmental education, had more skills of teaching environmental education, believed more in the relevance of Integrated Science to environmental education, and would actually want to teach more environmental education in Integrated Science classes if there were fewer constraints. Moreover, variations in the teaching of environmental education were reflected by teachers' emphasis on teaching environmental education, and their use of a variety of teaching methods and their regular practices of extracurricular activities on environmental education.