Developing Elementary Teachers’ Climate Change Knowledge and Self-efficacy for Teaching Climate Change Using Learning Technologies

Elementary teachers require support through professional learning activities to enhance their climate change literacy and bolster their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. This study explores methods for supporting in-service elementary teachers’ self-efficacy in climate change teaching by examining the impact of professional learning activities that incorporate learning technologies on climate change literacy. We present the findings from two in-service elementary teachers’ perspectives on how learning technologies facilitated the scaffolding of their self-efficacy for teaching climate change. Initially, both teachers held non-normative beliefs that ozone depletion was a cause of climate change. Interactive visualizations of climate models and simulations of the greenhouse effect enriched the teachers’ climate change literacy, leading to a correct understanding of the causal mechanisms linking greenhouse gases, energy, and global temperatures. The experience also elevated the teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching science concepts, with a particular focus on their understanding of the greenhouse effect and climate change.