THE CORRELATION BETWEEN RENEWABLE ENERGY KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL WITH FUTURE’S EDUCATORS

Abstract

It is important to create positive attitudes and enough knowledge for preservice science teachers about renewable energy for future. The aim of this research was to show the correlation between renewable energy knowledge and sub-dimensions of attitude towards renewable energy with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The research was conducted by the analysis of 1145 pre-service teachers’ answers to questionnaires data using SEM. Two questionnaires used for data collection which first was renewable energy knowledge scale that Cronbach’s alpha was .82 and the second was renewable energy attitude scale that Cronbach’s alpha was .87. Initially, Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin and Bartlett’s tests were done with SPSS to test appropriateness of subdimensions to factor analysis. Exploratory factor analysis was done for the subdimensions that were seen to be suitable for factor analysis and then structural model was tested with LISREL. At the end of the SEM test, it was found that there are positive relations between renewable energy knowledge of preservice teachers and their attitudes towards renewable energy. The more knowledge and attitudes about renewable energy can be improved, the more positive attitudes and behaviors will be provided to individuals and the efficient use of renewable energy types will be realized. Keywords: renewable energy knowledge, attitude towards renewable energy, structural equation modelling, preservice science teachers.