Elementary Teachers' Professionalism for Teaching Environmental Subjects

초등교사의 환경관련 수업에 대한 교사전문성

The purpose of this study was to analyze the professionalism of elementary school teachers and to draw out factors which elementary teachers should try to improve their professionalism for environmental education. For the study, both Quantitative analysis and qualitative methodologies were applied: First, randomly selected 483 elementary teachers from Seoul and Gyeonggi self responded to 5 evaluation areas by Hungerford et al. (1994) to evaluate their environmental education professionalism through the use of five point Likert scale. Second, 2 elementary teachers' environmental classes were observed for the purpose of analyzing strengths and weaknesses in classroom instruction, and then the results of self-evaluation on environmental education professionalism and teacher professionalism as shown in the classes were compared. It was found that 483 elementary teachers including 2 teachers fer analyzing classroom instruction who performed a self-evaluation gave themselves mid-scores on the Hungerford et al.'s 5 evaluation areas. However, the result of self-evaluation did not correspond with the result of actual class observation and teacher interview. That is, the actual environmental classes conducted by 2 teachers did not seemed to reflect the evaluation areas which were the foundation of the study: the conceptual awareness, the investigation & evaluation, environmental action skills, and educational application. The results of this study can be used as the basis reference to develop teaching-learning program and in-service programs for professional development of teachers for successful application of environmental education in elementary school classes.