Indonesian Teachers’ Perceptions on Green Chemistry Principles: a Case Study of a Chemical Analyst Vocational School

This study aims to describe the teachers‘ perception of Green Chemistry, an area of chemistry that focuses on the design of products and processes that minimize the use and generation of hazardous substances. The description of Green Chemistry is based on the teachers' perception of a Green Chemistry paradigm and how to integrate this perception into the chemistry learning process for their students. The perception and integration of Green Chemistry to achieve sustainable development in the field of chemistry needs to be promoted, especially among educators for spreading to their students. Data were collected by distributing questionnaires to 35 teachers in a Chemical Analyst Vocational School, Makassar, Indonesia. The questionnaire was based on the indicators related to the principles of Green Chemistry including prevention, economic atom, chemical synthesis safe, designing safer chemicals, solvents and compounds safe aides, design for energy efficiency, use of raw materials renewable, stages reduction reactions, use of catalysis, material design decomposition, instantaneous analysis for pollution prevention and chemical which are naturally more secure to prevent accidents. Data were analyzed descriptively to determine the percentage of teachers' perceptions of green chemistry in learning. The results showed that, in general, the majority (97.14%) of teachers at this Indonesian school reported knowledge of Green Chemistry but only 32.30 % were aware of the concept of Green Chemistry. Furthermore, 47.42% of the teachers think that green chemistry does not need to be put into learning curriculum and 31.38% believe need to be included in the learning process. These finding demonstrate that the concept of Green Chemistry has not been socialized among teachers of Chemical Analyst Vocational School of Makassar. For this reason, there is a need for developing a learning model in chemistry teaching that responds to our vision for a sustainable future