A SURVEY OF ENVIRONMENTAL PERCEPTIONS AND KNOWLEDGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES POSSESSED BY SCIENCE AND NON-SCIENCE EDUCATORS IN NIGERIA

The purposes of this study were to assess the perceptions and knowledge of environmental issues possessed by science and non-science educators in Nigeria and to determine whether any relationships and differences existed in their perceptions and knowledge of environmental issues. Selected inventory items on environmental issues were validated by a jury of experienced educators from Nigerian and American universities, and tested in a pilot study. The devised inventory was administered to a sample population of (1) 21 college science educators, (2) 30 science-oriented teacher trainees, and (3) 45 non-science-oriented teacher trainees from two institutions of higher education in Imo State of Nigeria. A total return rate of 77 percent was achieved. Responses were assigned codes and subjected to the Spearman's correlation coefficient and the Mann-Whitney U tests which were used to determine significant relationships and differences between groups in the sample population. The alpha at 0.05 level of significance with no direction predicted was used to evaluate each test. Analyses of the responses from the sample population showed that: (1) there was no significant correlation between perceptions and knowledge of environmental issues possessed by college science educators and science-oriented teacher trainees; (2) there was a significant correlation between the perceptions and knowledge of environmental issues possessed by non-science-oriented teacher trainees; (3) no significant differences were found to exist in the perceptions of environmental issues possessed by the science and non-science groups; and (4) no significant differences were found to exist in the knowledge of environmental issues possessed by the science and non-science groups. Conclusions drawn from the study were: (1) that perceptions of environmental issues among educators who were academically oriented towards science did not depend on their knowledge of environmental issues; (2) that among educators who were not academically oriented towards science, perceptions of environmental issues were related to their knowledge of environmental issues; and (3) that educators responding to the survey generally possessed favorable perceptions and moderate knowledge of environmental issues. It is, however, possible that other factors, which were not covered by this study, played an important part in the educators' perceptions and knowledge of environmental issues.