Self-Efficacy Beliefs on Integrating Sustainability into Profession and Daily Life: in the Words of University Students
Self-Efficacy Beliefs on Integrating Sustainability into Profession and Daily Life: in the Words of University Students
Integrating sustainable development into higher education is essential to reach a sustainable future; accompanied with level of knowledge, increasing level of motivation of university students is also crucial since motivation affects their ways of sustainable behaviour. Therefore, this study aimed to explore university students’ reflections about their level of knowledge on sustainability and their ways of integrating sustainability principles into their profession and daily life. Thus, we attempted to investigate university students’ level of self-efficacy beliefs on integrating sustainability into their profession and daily life after completing a sustainability course. However, since there is no specific instrument to evaluate university students’ self-efficacy beliefs on this subject, we adapted the instrument originally developed by Enochs & Riggs, 1990 to determine university students’ self-efficacy beliefs on integrating sustainability into profession and daily life and used the instrument to explore our research questions. Besides, we used students’ essays and self-reports in order to evaluate their conceptions on sustainability. The implementation was realised with 113 university students studying at a state university in Ankara, Turkey . According to the exploratory factor analysis results, two dimensions emerged as Daily Life Efficacy and Profession Efficacy to integrate sustainability. The results showed that university students who attended the sustainability course have relatively high personal self-efficacy beliefs towards integrating sustainability into their daily life. Nevertheless, although they reported that they have enough background knowledge on sustainability and have high self-efficacy, evaluations of the students’ essays on the definition of sustainability showed that they do not hold a holistic understanding
___
- Akbas, A., & Celikkaleli, O. (2006). Sinif ogretmeni adaylarinin fen ogretimi oz-yeterlik
inanclarinin cinsiyet, ogrenim turu ve universitelerine gore incelenmesi. Mersin
Universitesi Egitim Fakultesi Dergisi, 2(1), 98-110.
- Allinder, R. M. (1994). The relation between efficacy and the instructional practices of
special education teachers and consultants. Teacher Education and Special
Education, 17, 86-95.
- Aydin, S. & Boz, Y. (2010). Pre-service elementary science teachers’ science teaching
efficacy beliefs and their sources. Elementary Education Online, 9(2), 694-704.
- Azar, A. (2010). Ortaogretim fen bilimleri ve matematik ogretmeni adaylarinin oz
yeterlilik inanclari. Zku Journal of Social Sciences, 6(12), 235-252.
- Bahcivan, E., & Kapucu, S. (2014). Turkish preservice elementary science teachers'
conceptions of learning science and science teaching efficacy beliefs: is there a
relationship? International Journal of Environmental and Science
Education, 9(4), 429-442.
- Bandura, A. (1977). “Self-Efficacy: toward a unifying theory of behavioural change.
Psychological Review, 84, 191–215.
- Cotton, D. R. E., Warren, M.F., Maiboroda, O. & Bailey, I. (2007). Sustainable
development, higher education and pedagogy: a study of lecturers' beliefs and
attitudes. Environmental Education Research, 13(5), 579-597.
- Cokluk, O., Sekercioglu, G., & Buyukozturk, S. (2010). Sosyal bilimler icin cok
degiskenli istatistik SPSS ve LISREL uygulamalari. [Multivariate Statistics
Practice of SPSS and LISREL for Social Sciences], Pegem Akademi, Ankara.
- Demirtas, H., Comert, M., & Ozer, N. (2011). Pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs
and attitudes towards profession. Education and Science, 36(159),96-111.
- Edwards, A. L. (1994) Techniques of attitude scale construction. New York: Irvington.
Egelston, A. E. (2006). Sustainable development: a history, Springer: Dortrecht.
- Effeney, G. & Davis, J. (2013). Education for sustainability: a case study of pre-service
primary teachers’ knowledge and efficacy. Australian Journal of Teacher
Education, 38(5), available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.14221/ajte.2013v38n5.4
- Egeli, G. (1996) Avrupa Birligi ve Turkiye’de cevre sorunlari. Ankara: TCV Yayini.
Emanuel R. & Adams, J. N. (2011). College students' perceptions of campus
sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 12(1),
79 – 92.
- Enochs, L. G., & Riggs, I. M. (1990). Further development of an elementary science
teaching efficacy belief instrument: A pre-service elementary scale. School
Science and Mathematics, 90, 694-706
- Gencer, A. S., & Cakiroglu, J. (2007). Turkish pre-service science teachers’ efficacy
beliefs regarding science teaching and their beliefs about classroom
management. Teaching and Teaching Education, 23,664-675.
- Gravetter F. J., & Wallnau, L. B. (2009). Statistics for behavioral sciences (8th Edition),
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, USA.
- Haigh, M. (2005). Greening the university curriculum: appraising an international
movement. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 29(1), 31-48.
- Hazir-Bikmaz, F. (2004). Sinif ogretmenlerinin fen ogretiminde oz-yeterlik inanci
olceginin gecerlik ve guvenirlik calismasi. Milli Egitim Dergisi, 161
- Heeren, A. J., Singh A. S., Zwickle, A., Koontz, T. M., Slagle, K. M., & McCreery, A.C.
(2016). Is sustainability knowledge half the battle? An examination of
sustainability knowledge, attitudes, norms, and efficacy to understand
sustainable behaviours. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher
Education, 17(5).
- Horhota, M., Asman, J., Stratton, J. P., & Halfacre, A.C. (2014). Identifying behavioural
barriers to campus sustainability. International Journal of Sustainability in
Higher Education, 15(3), 343 – 358.
- Locke, E. A., & Latham, G. P. (1990). Work motivation and satisfaction: Light at the
end of the tunnel. Psychological science, 1(4), 240-246.
- Louisa Tomas, Sarah Girgenti & Cliff Jackson (2017). Pre-service teachers’ attitudes
toward education for sustainability and its relevance to their learning:
implications for pedagogical practice. Environmental Education Research,
23(3), 324-347, DOI: 10.1080/13504622.2015.1109065
- McKeown, R. (2002) Progress has been made in education for sustainable
development. Applied Environmental Education and Communication, 1, 21–23.
- McCormick, M., Bielefeldt, A. R., Swan, C. W. & Paterson, K. G. (2015). Assessing
students’ motivation to engage in sustainable engineering. International Journal
of Sustainability in Higher Education, 16(2), 136 – 154.
- Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation:
revised and expanded from qualitative research and case study applications in
education, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco.
- Ministry of Development [MoD]. (2012). Turkiye surdurulebilir kalkinma raporu:
gelecegi sahiplenmek 2012, Ankara.
- Moore, J. (2005a) Barriers and pathways to creating sustainability education programs:
Policy, rhetoric and reality. Environmental Education Research, 11(5), 537–555.
- Moore, J. (2005b) Seven recommendations for creating sustainability education at the
university level: A guide for change agents. International Journal of
Sustainability in Higher Education 6(4), 326–339.
- Moseley, C., Reinke, K & Bookout, V. (2002). The effect of teaching outdoor
environmental education on pre-service teachers’ attitudes toward self-efficacy
and outcome expectancy. The Journal of Environmental Education, 34(1), 9 –
15.
- Okumus, K. (2002). Turkey’s environment. Hungary: REC-CEE
- Onder, R., & Kocaeren, A. A. (2015). Analysis of science teacher candidates’
environmental knowledge, environmental behaviour and self-efficacy through a
project called “environment and energy with professional science
education”. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 186, 105-112.
- Onen, F. & Oztuna, A. (2006). Fen bilgisi ve matemetik ogretmenlerinin oz yeterlik
duygusunun belirlenmesi. Edu7, 1(1).
- Pajares, M. F. (1992). Teachers‟ beliefs and educational research: Cleaning up a
messy construct. Review of Educational Research, 62(3),307-332.
- Pallant, J. (2007). SPSS survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using
SPSS for windows: 3rd edition, Open University Press, Berkshire, England.
- Parrott, K. R., Mitchell, K. J., Emmel, J. M., & Beamish, J. O. (2011). If you could be in
charge: student ideas for promoting sustainability in housing.International
Journal of Consumer Studies, 35(2), 265-271.
- Pintrich, P. R. & Schunk, D. H. (2002). Motivation in education: theory, research, and
Applications, Pearson Education, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
- Sahin, E., Ertepinar, H., & Teksoz, G. (2009). Implications for a green curriculum
application toward sustainable development. Hacettepe University Journal of
Education, 37, 123-135.
- Stevens, J. (2002). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. Mahwah, NJ:
Erlbaum.
- Sungur, S. & Kahraman, N. (2011). The contribution of motivational beliefs to students’
metacognitive strategy use. Education and Science, 36(160), 3-10.
- Sungur, S. & Gungoren, S. (2009). The role of classroom environment perceptions in
self-regulated learning and science achievement. Elementary Education Online,
8(3), 883-900.
- Talloires Declaration (1990) ULSF, Association of University Leaders for a Sustainable
Future, available at www.ULSF.org
- Tekkaya, C., Cakiroglu, J. & Ozkan, O. (2004). Turkish pre-service science teachers'
understanding of science and their confidence in teaching it, Journal of
Education for Teaching, 30(1), 57-68
- Tschannen- Moran, M. & Woolfolk Hoy, A. (2007). The differential ancedents of selfefficacy beliefs of novice and experienced teacher. Teaching and Teacher
Education, 23, 944-956.
- Trauth-Nare, A. (2015). Influence of an intensive, field-based life science course on
preservice teachers’ self-efficacy for environmental science teaching. Journal of
Science Teacher Education, 26(5), 497-519.
- Tuncer, G. (2008). University students’ perception on sustainable development: a case
study from Turkey. International Research in Geographical and Environmental
Education, 17(3), 212-226.
- United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (1992).
Agenda 21: Action plan for the next century, Rio de Janeiro.
- United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (2012). Rio+20, Rio de
Janeiro.
- UNESCO (1972). The Stockholm Declaration, UNESCO, Stockholm.
- UNESCO (2005). International Implementation Scheme. Retrieved August 04, 2016
from
https://www.bibb.de/dokumente/pdf/a33_unesco_international_implementation
_sche me.pdf
- UNESCO (2010). Four Dimensions of Sustainable Development. Retrieved December
29, 2013 from
http://www.unesco.org/education/tlsf/mods/theme_a/popups/mod04t01s03.h ml
- World Commission on Environment and Development (1987). Our common future,
Oxford, Oxford University PressDeclaration.