Environmental Education within a Science Course in the Initial Education of Primary Teachers

This paper describes an attempt to infuse an environmental dimension into a science course through which prospective primary teachers are trained. The innovation concerns teaching science concepts not in the context of the discipline, but within a context of everyday life, and as such the focus chosen was drinking water. In formulating the course, learners' ideas about aspects of the issue were taken into account. The evaluation was based on a post-course questionnaire. The main conclusions to be drawn from this evaluation is that the science knowledge learned through this approach helped students gain a better understanding of a variety of aspects which concern that issue. The majority of students appreciated such an integrated approach and thought the approach taken was more promising than the stereotypical one that they had been accustomed to up to that point.