Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

EFFECT OF ECOCENTRIC AND ANTHROPOCENTRIC VALUE ORIENTATION OF THE STUDENT-TEACHERS OF SECONDARY TEACHERS’ TRAINING INSTITUTES ON THEIR PROENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIOUR

Subhas Chandra Roy, Sujit Pal and Abhijit Guha

Abstract

Value orientation towards the environment is considered an important factor in determining the proenvironmental behaviour of the student-teachers because it influences their thought process and behaviour towards the environment. The student-teachers play a significant role in promoting pro-environmental behaviour among school students because after getting a teaching job, they will get the opportunity to interact with the students and influence their behaviour. Therefore, the present study focuses on predicting pro-environmental behaviour of the student-teachers from their value orientation towards the environment. The tools used were: Value Orientation Towards the Environment Scale (VOTES) and Pro-Environmental Behaviour Scale (PEBS). Data from 682 student-teachers of Secondary Teachers’ Training Institutes were collected randomly through multistage sampling. It was observed that ecocentric value orientation is significantly correlated with pro-environmental behaviour, but anthropocentric value orientation is not. It was further observed that though student-teachers’ pro-environmental behaviour can be predicted significantly from their ecocentric value orientation (t=6.376, Standardized Beta Coefficient=0.250), it cannot be predicted significantly by anthropocentric value orientation (t=0.357, Standardized Beta Coefficient= - 0.014). From the results, a multiple linear regression model was also developed. The study is significant because it can be considered useful to understand the role of value orientation towards the environment and its components in determining one’s pro-environmental behaviour. This provides further scope of studies related to the combined effect of other factors like attitude, belief, norm, motivation etc. on proenvironmental behaviour together with value orientation. The present study can also be of some help in upgrading school education curriculum and teacher education curriculum by adding more relevant contents into environmental education and other related papers.