The Relationship between Pre-service Teachers' Awareness Levels of Electromagnetic Pollution and other Environmental Problems

The purpose of this study is to find out the relationship between the awareness level of preservice science teachers’ conscious use of technological devices, which cause electromagnetic pollution, and their awareness level of related environmental problems. Research Methods: In this study, a mixed design method was used. A relational screening model was used to collect quantitative data. The phenomenological method, which includes defining and interpreting individuals’ perception and perspective related to a phenomenon, was used to collect qualitative data. While selecting participants, purposeful sampling was used. Seventy-six preservice science teachers took part in the quantitative part of this study in Ankara, Turkey. In the qualitative part of the study, seven female and eight male preservice teachers were chosen out of the 76 on a volunteer basis. Three data collection tools were used. Findings: The findings obtained from the research show that there is no remarkable difference among preservice science teachers’ awareness levels of electromagnetic pollution depending on the gender variable. Then, it was concluded that students who had taken environmental science courses had higher levels of awareness compared to those who had not. With another sub-problem, it was seen that there is no relationship between preservice teachers’ awareness levels of conscious use of technological devices causing electromagnetic pollution and their awareness levels of environmental problems. Implications for Research and Practice: Preservice science teachers are less sensitive to electromagnetic pollution than other types of pollutions. Future studies could investigate why students think that they are less sensitive to electromagnetic pollution.