ABSTRACT

 
Article : ECOLOGICAL INTELLIGENCE OF PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS
Author Name : M. Caroline Maria and Dr.S.Mani
Abstract : Conducive environment is a pre-condition for safe living of all organisms across the globe. Mother Earth provides us all benefits for our happy living, but in return we leave scars on Earth by fulfilling our greediness and satisfying our selfish needs. The loss of forests; loss of soil fertility; decreasing reservoir of water, oil and natural gas; depletion of ozone layers; and increasing global warming are some of the serious concerns of the global community. Hence, it is all the more important for every human being to possess adequate level of Ecological Intelligence to protect the Mother Earth. Understanding the pain of planet Earth and work together to protect the planet Earth for the survival of all organisms is possible by enhancing Ecological Intelligence of human beings. Teachers can act as catalyst by educating their students about the environment problems and workout effective solutions to resolve the environmental problems. This could be possible only when the teachers have complete knowledge on the condition of environment and the means and methods to protect the environment from further deterioration. Hence, the present study was carried out with the primary objective to assess the level of ecological intelligence of prospective teachers with respect to their gender, stream of study, and age. Three hundred prospective teachers from six different Colleges of Education who pursued Bachelor of Education (B.Ed.) Degree Programme during the Academic Year 2014 - 2015 in Chennai city were randomly selected for the study. Ecological Intelligence Test, developed and validated by the researcher was used to collect data for the present study. Descriptive and differential analysis was used to analyse the data collected for the study. The results of the present study reveals that prospective teachers have average level of ecological intelligence, and significantly differ in their level of ecological intelligence with respect to gender, stream of study, and age. The researcher concludes that the existing level of ecological intelligence of prospective teachers need to be enhanced to enable them to infuse more positive attitudes in their students in dealing with the prevailing environment problems and work for sustainable life of all organisms on the Earth.
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