Developing a Novel Pedagogical Model for Low-Carbon Physical Educational Practices to Enhance Environmental Awareness Among Pre-Service Teachers

Traditional sports and physical education programs often generate substantial carbon footprints through facility operation, equipment production, and activity-related energy consumption. While physical education offers unique opportunities for experiential environmental learning, limited research has examined how contextualized cooperative challenges specifically enhance pre-service teachers’ low-carbon awareness. This quasi-experimental study investigated whether situational cooperative environmental challenges within a low-carbon physical education program could more effectively develop environmental awareness compared to non-situational cooperative approaches. A pre–post quasi-experimental comparative design involved 143 Spanish pre-service teachers (ages 21–26, 58.9% female) from the University of Girona during 2022–2024. The Experimental Group ( n = 104) received situational cooperative environmental challenges with 20 h of preparatory seminars, while the Control Group ( n = 39) received traditional reciprocal teaching without preparatory training. Environmental awareness was assessed through reflective narrative portfolios. Despite significant baseline differences between groups, both demonstrated significant pre–post improvements (EG: 105% improvement; CG: 93% improvement). ANCOVA controlling for baseline differences confirmed EG’s superior performance, with a large effect size. The study provides preliminary evidence for integrating contextualized low-carbon concepts into physical education teacher preparation.