Developing Elementary Teachers’ Climate Change Knowledge and Self-efficacy for Teaching Climate Change Using Learning Technologies
Amal Ibourk, Lauren Wagner, Khadija Zogheib
Abstract
Elementary teachers require support through professional learning activities to enhance their climate change literacy and bolster their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. This study explores methods for supporting in-service elementary teachers’ self-efficacy in climate change teaching by examining the impact of professional learning activities that incorporate learning technologies on climate change literacy. We present the findings from two in-service elementary teachers’ perspectives on how learning technologies facilitated the scaffolding of their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. Initially, both teachers held non-normative beliefs that ozone depletion was a cause of climate change. Interactive visualizations of climate models and simulations of the greenhouse effect enriched the teachers’ climate change literacy, leading to a correct understanding of the causal mechanisms linking greenhouse gases, energy, and global temperatures. The experience also elevated the teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching science concepts, with a particular focus on their understanding of the greenhouse effect and climate change.