Salima Begum

Beliefs About Environmental Education: Science Teachers Belief of Environmental Education and Its Relationship with Classroom Practices Salima Begum

The ultimate purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs of a secondary science teacher about environmental education and how his stated beliefs matched with his classroom practices. The study was conducted in one of the co-operative schools of the Aga Khan University- Institute for Educational Development, in Karachi Pakistan. The research design was qualitative, which included multimethods. The methods included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, pre-post conferences, document analysis and the teacher?s teaching/learning stories. The study employed different data collection tools such as interview guidelines, a classroom observation checklist, teaching/learning stories and pre-post conference guideline questions. The findings of the study suggest that the participant believed in teaching environmental education in a science classroom. The factors that prevented him from enacting his beliefs were identified as his content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and support from the administration. The study thus suggests professional development programmes to enhance their content, pedagogical cocontent knowledge about environmental education.