Developing Self-Efficacy in Pre-Service Teachers to Further Education for Sustainability

Education for Sustainability (EfS) aims to promote pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) with the goal of improving the environment. While many EfS programs hope that increasing knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes will result in behavior change, research shows that changes in knowledge and attitudes are insufficient to inspire pro-environmental behaviors. The researchers propose that building self-efficacy—whether a person believes that they can achieve desired actions—may be the key to behavior change. This study explored how self-efficacy impacted a pre-service teacher's ability to promote EfS both inside the classroom and in their communities.

The goal of EfS is to improve pro-environmental knowledge and attitudes, as well as foster both public and private behaviors. Public PEBs indirectly improve the environment, such as donating money; private PEBs directly improve the environment, such as composting. However, changing behavior is complicated, and research has shown that changes in attitudes and increased knowledge do not directly lead to pro-environmental behaviors. Self-efficacy, though, may be an intermediate outcome of EfS. Research has shown that self-efficacy is a much stronger predictor of behavior change because it indicates a person's belief in their own capability to take an action.

The research took place at The Green College in central Israel. The researchers surveyed 80 pre-service teachers enrolled in an EfS course. Nearly all participants (99%) were female, with an average age of 26 and most being in their 2nd or 3rd year of the program. Most participants were Jewish and from Israel. The survey was distributed both online and on paper. The questionnaire asked participants about 6 concepts: (1) attitudes towards the environment; (2) attitudes towards the social aspects of environmental issues; (3) pro-environmental behaviors in private spaces (e.g., recycling) and public spaces (e.g., donations to environmental organizations); (4) the importance of the course for skills, theory, and knowledge development; (5) self-efficacy for advancing EfS in the classroom; and (6) self-efficacy for influencing the environmental attitudes of school leadership and community members to advance sustainable behaviors. The researchers statistically analyzed the surveys to find the degree to which the first four concepts (attitudes and behaviors) were able to predict the last two concepts (self-efficacy).

The study found that attitudes and behavior influenced a participant's self-efficacy for advancing EfS inside the classroom (private) more than using pro-environmental behaviors outside the classroom (public). The participants believed that the course increased their skills, knowledge, understanding, awareness, and pro-environmental behaviors. Of all these increases, the researchers found that the skills development component of the course contributed the most to participants' feelings of self-efficacy in promoting EfS.

The results indicated that most participants had pro-environmental attitudes and high levels of awareness of the environmental issues impacting Israel. Participants also demonstrated awareness of connections between environmental, social, and economic issues. Finally, the researchers found that 3rd year students benefitted the most from EfS courses focused on skill development.

This study has several limitations. Participants were overwhelmingly female, Jewish, and Israeli, and therefore represent a very narrow demographic. A study undertaken in another institution and cultural context may produce different results. Additionally, the self-reported nature of the data can decrease its accuracy. Finally, while the study finds interesting results among pre-service training students, this may not translate directly to results inside the classroom.

Given that skills development helps build self-efficacy, the researchers recommend that teacher education programs allocate skills-building resources to their programs. They also suggest that these teacher training programs partner with non-governmental organizations to advocate for EfS to encourage public PEBs. Because the researchers found that 3rd year students benefit most from EfS courses focused specifically on skill development, programs may choose to primarily implement EfS in the 3rd year.