A Study on Environmental Awareness of the Teacher and their Perception of Teaching about Environment

Teaching environmental education at school level is imperative as the aim ofenvironmentalism is to develop and train an informed and sensitive future citizenry to protect the fragile biodiversity. The curriculum and teaching method of environmental education are controversial issues and miich research work is going on to find out suitable curriculum and effective method of teaching. In this context of curriculum, two models have been proposed but the efficacy of the models needs to be researched extensively. Besides, the concept of environmental awareness and the nature of pro-environmental behaviour have been analysed and defined in behavioural terms.

It is a brief study to find out the level of environmental awareness of the trainee teachers and their attitude towards environmental education. The sample consisted of teachers of ICSE schoo/s. Tlic data were colfected when they joined an in-service training programme organised by the Council for the Indian School Education Examinations. The subjects are yet to take formal B. Ed. degree. Their attitude towards inclusion of environmental education in B. Ed. syllabus is positive. They supported most of the variables related to effective teaching of environmental education, namely, activity method of teaching, team teaching, etc. Many of them even declared that teaching of environmental education along with other subjects will not pose any difficulty. The variables could have been analysed in greater detail had the sample size been larger