Omani pre-service science teachers' views about global warming: Beliefs about actions and willingness to act

Abstract

A 44-item questionnaire was employed to determine pre-service teachers' beliefs about how useful various specific actions might be in helping to reduce global warming, their willingness to undertake these same actions, and the extent to which these two might be related. The instrument was administered to pre-service science teachers (n=104) at the Sultan Qaboos University in the Sultanate of Oman. The findings indicate that the majority of these Omani pre-service science teachers believed that global warming and associated climate change is happening now and they are concerned about it. Furthermore, they are aware of the measures that individuals could take to help ameliorate this problem but, despite this, showed a lack of willingness to act in key areas, such as the use of public transport and the purchase of smaller more fuel-efficient cars. This suggests that although the pre-service teachers appear to have a sound understanding of the actions that will help to reduce global warming and are well positioned to inform their students about these, their potential as role models might be compromised if their own actions are not in line with their understanding.