Effects of Gender and Grade Level on Environmental Moral Reasoning Patterns

Yilmaz, Ozgul/0000-0001-7869-9251WOS: 000353428900011The purpose of this study was to examine environmental moral reasoning patterns of 120 pre-service science teachers together with the effects of gender and grade level on these reasoning. For data collection, participants were asked to write their concerns about four environmental problems (i.e., deforestation, electronic waste, oil spills, global warming) each of which were presented as local and global cases. Content analysis was performed on the participants' written statements and frequencies of the statements reflecting ecocentric, anthropocentric, and non-environmental moral reasoning were calculated to be used in descriptive and inferential analyses. While analyses did not reveal statistically significant difference between environmental moral reasoning patterns of males and females, grade level was found to have statistically significant effect. In addition to general patterns in pre-service science teachers' environmental moral reasoning, findings were also interpreted for local and global environmental problem dichotomy. Implications for environmental education were discussed

Moral reasoning patterns and influential factors in the context of environmental problems

Yilmaz, Ozgul/0000-0001-7869-9251WOS: 000306087900004This study investigated pre-service science teachers' (PSTs') moral reasoning patterns and the factors underlying these reasoning patterns. Local and non-local environmental dilemmas were used to examine moral reasoning patterns. An explanatory design was used with the collection and analysis of quantitative data, which was subsequently refined using qualitative interview data. For the quantitative part of the study, PSTs were asked to comment on four local and non-local environmental dilemmas (i.e. deforestation, e-waste, oil spills, and global warming). The responses were categorized as ecocentric, anthropocentric, or non-environmental reasoning. The findings showed that the participants' moral reasoning focused on both ecocentric and anthropocentric perspectives, with a few displaying non-environmental reasoning. Concern for environmental problems was related to perceptions of whether the issue was directly related to nature, and was independent of whether the issues were local or non-local. The Moral Decision Making Interview protocol was used in the qualitative part of the study. Analysis revealed that the participants' moral decisions were based on their resolutions in situational context and their concerns showed variations in their moral reasoning due to different factors like, effect on human life, formal principles, notion of rights, moral emotions, potential harm to others, and popular culture