Environmental Literacy in Teacher Training: Attitudes, Knowledge, and Environmental Behavior of Beginning Students

The authors report the environmental attitudes and knowledge of 765 1st-year students in 3 teacher-training colleges in Israel and examine the relationship between these variables and background factors and their relationship to environmental behavior. Although the students' environmental knowledge was limited, their overall attitudes toward the environment were positive. The authors found a positive relationship between the environmental knowledge and environmental attitudes of the students and the level of their mothers' education. Students majoring in fields related to the environment were more knowledgeable and had more environment-oriented attitudes in comparison with other students. The authors discuss the relationship between knowledge, attitudes, and behavior and the influence of background factors on the students' environmental literacy.