Abstract

                In the Indian context the research focus on the environmental orientation of prospective teachers is limited to awareness scores and less often differentiates the value orientations under these scores. The present study was an attempt to make comparison of the environmental values of rural and urban B.Ed. trainees on the basis of five dimensions – ecological conservation, environmental responsibility, aesthetic and emotional attachment, socio-altruistic concern and sustainable lifestyle. To examine the needs of the second year B.Ed. trainees, a descriptive survey design was employed with 320 B.Ed. trainees, selected by stratified random sampling technique from 8 colleges of education of Jiwaji University, Gwalior with equal number of trainees from locality, gender and academic stream. The data was collected on 45 items 5-point Likert scale with the instrument Cronbach alpha of .906. The independent samples t tests, a two way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation were used. There were no significant differences between rural and urban trainees in the composite score (t(318) = -1.84, p = .066); however, three of the five dimensions were different. The difference was significant with urban trainees showing higher scores on environmental responsibility and sustainable lifestyle and rural showing higher scores on aesthetic/emotional attachment (d = 0.71). The main effect of gender was significant (F(1, 316) = 7.04, p = .008) and there was no significant interaction. On all dimensions, science stream trainees had higher scores than arts stream trainees. Rural and urban trainees thus have the same overall level of environmental values but a different composition, having implications for the planning of environmental education in colleges of education.