Home and school gardening: Practices, attitudes, and beliefs of pre-service teachers

Abstract

The study investigates the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers on home and school gardening as the basis for incorporating gardening activity in teacher education courses. Utilizing a descriptive research design, the data was gathered through a researcher-made survey and analyzed using various statistical methods such as percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test for independent sample means, and Pearson r. The findings reveal a high positive regard for gardening among pre-service teachers, irrespective of sex and geographical location. The geographical location shows some variations in beliefs about gardening, particularly between coastal-rural and other areas, whereas attitudes were consistently positive across locations. A significant correlation between beliefs and attitudes suggests that fostering positive beliefs may enhance positive attitudes toward gardening. These results underscore the potential for integrating gardening into teacher education, promoting values like environmental conservation, and healthy habits. The study acknowledges limitations like the limited diversity of the sample and unexplored translation of attitudes into practice and recommends the incorporation of gardening into the curriculum and the provision of practical gardening spaces and training. The conclusions affirm the role of pre-service teachers in addressing challenges like limited food supply and environmental degradation and emphasize the need to include gardening values in teacher education. This study recommends that gardening activities be integrated into the pre-service teacher education curriculum.