Trainee science teachers’ ideas about environmental problems caused by vehicle emissions

Despite of the fact that cars have a positive impact on growth as an integral component of our society, they have unpleasant effects on the local and global environment, health and social life.

As the main source of the air pollution, motor vehicles emit large quantities of gases and particles such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulphur dioxide, hydrocarbons and toxic substances including fine particles and lead (Colvile et al., 2000; OECD, 2002; Siddique, 2004). Motor vehicles are the cause of environmental problems such as acid rain and global warming (Littledyke, 2004; Siddique, 2004; Fuqi et al., 2005; Ghose et al., 2005; Elshout, 2006; Sushko et al., 2007) and contribute to the human health problems such as respiratory symptoms, asthma attacks, lung cancer, reduction in lung function, cardiovascular diseases, heart diseases, visual impairment, reduction in learning ability, leukemia, lymphoma, bronchitis, etc. (Brauer et al., 2002; Fisher et al., 2002; Oftedal et al., 2003; Crosignani et al., 2004; Reynolds et al., 2004; Lanki et al., 2006). Moreover motor vehicles have been partly responsible for social problems that effect daily life such as accidents, noise pollution, congestion, etc.

The vehicle population is growing rapidly. Therefore, cars have an increasing impact on the future environment. Since today’s young people will be leading tomorrow’s society, they must be well aware of the environmental problems (Hilman et al., 1996; Boyes and Stanisstreet, 1998b).

The nature and predominance of today’s children’s ideas, including their misconceptions, are important because today’s young people, who are tomorrow’s scientists or policymakers, will be affected by these problems and will need to provide solutions to the environmental problems which will arise from our current actions (Boyes and Stanisstreet, 1997; Bradley et al., 1999). Moreover, many of today’s young people will soon be individuals who make personal decisions about vehicle usage, and these decisions will carry environmental implications (Hillman et al., 1996).

Children are the masters of the future (Boyes and Stanisstreet, 1998b), so the students of today are the key factor in solving future environmental problems. Having correct knowledge about environmental issues will provide solutions for environmental problems. Effective environmental education for young people should be a fundamental and integral part of societies’ education systems (Bradley et al., 1999). Furthermore, environmental education, which is an essential component in the dynamics of environmental protection (OECD, 2002), should bring changes in one’s attitudes, values, beliefs and actions (Boyes and Stanisstreet, 1998b). The three major components of environmental literacy are attitude, environmental behaviors and environmental knowledge, which are being expressed in the frame of a deeper and profound understanding of the air pollution topic.

The focus of this study is to examine trainee science teachers’ who will educate children about the environmental effects of cars. We studied today’s young people’s understanding of the links between cars and environmental problems. In addition, this study evaluates the role of gender regarding to the knowledge of students about cars and the environment in Turkey. This study is important because it explores young people’s environmental knowledge and ideas in a developing country like Turkey, where environmental issues are not considered a main subject due to economical, social and cultural factors; and is interesting and valuable for the future of the world. Ideas about environmental issues are related to the cultural situation. From this aspect, Turkey has interesting and unique characteristics. The differences about environmental issues between the East and West can be reflected by Turkish students who are the next generation of car owners and drivers.

The literature review showed that there is no research concerning students’ knowledge or ideas about cars and the environment in Turkey. So this study is unique in terms of revealing the knowledge of Turkish students. There is a strong need to analyze students’ knowledge level and misconceptions in developing countries such as Turkey. In this regard, this study focuses on the following questions: (1) What are the misconceptions of Turkish students about the effect of cars on environmental issues? (2) What is the effect of gender on students’ knowledge? (3) What are the information sources that students use to gain knowledge about the environmental effects of cars? (4) What do the findings of this study suggest for improving environmental education?