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A comparative study of environmental awareness and environmental attitude among secondary school students in India and Iran

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In this study, the author investigates the degree of relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude of secondary school students in India and Iran. Nine hundred and ninety-one students were selected through the stratified random sampling technique from 103 secondary schools of Mysore city (India) and Tehran city (Iran). Subjects consisted of 476 boys and 515 girls. They were assessed using the Environmental Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM) (Praveen Kumar Jha, 1998) and Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS) developed by Haseen Taj (2001). Results revealed that there are significant relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude of students in both countries
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A comparative study of environmental awareness
and environmental attitude among secondary school
students in Indian and Iran
1
(Ph.D) S. M. SHOBEIRI
2
A. Maleki (Ph.D.)
Abstract
In this study, the author investigates the degree of relationship between
environmental awareness and environmental attitude of secondary school
students in India and Iran. Nine hundred and ninety-one students were
selected through the stratified random sampling technique from 103
secondary schools of Mysore city (India) and Tehran city (Iran). Subjects
consisted of 476 boys and 515 girls. They were assessed using the
Environmental Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM) (Praveen Kumar
Jha, 1998) and Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS) developed by
Haseen Taj (2001). Results revealed that there are significant relationship
between environmental awareness and environmental attitude of students
in both countries
Key words: Environmental attitude, Environmental awareness
Introduction
Environmental problems had been considered as technical and economical problems;
while in the recent decades the educational and behavioural dimensions of
environmental problems have became one of the most important areas of environmental
sociology and environmental education. In other word, the recent paradigms consider
Environmental problems as a result of human behaviour (kalantari, 2007:67). So, only
through changing human behaviour can reduce environmental problems.
One of important factors affecting environmental behaviour is
people’s attitude towards environmental problems such as air and water
pollution, urban garbage and climate changes which in turn is subject to
1
Corresponding author name: Seyed Mohammad Shobeiri: sm_shobeiri@pnu.ac - /Department of Education, University of Payam-e-Noor, Tehran, Iran
2
ame: Amir Maleki: a_maleki@pnu.a /Department of Corresponding author n - Sociology, University of Payam-e-Noor, Tehran, Iran.
6/ Quarterly Journal of Education
environmental awareness. This is a reason that environmental education
has become one of the more effective solutions for environmental issues,
because the purpose of environmental education is to improve the quality
of environment by creating awareness among the people about
environment problems and conservation. In the other word, the objectives
of the environmental education are to generate awareness, knowledge,
attitude, skills, evaluation ability and participation to help social groups
and individuals (Bhaskar, 2003). Environmental education should create
environmental awareness among the people and enable the people to
know their responsibilities in the protection of their environment and to
conserve the natural resources. According to Annon (1970),
environmental education is the process of recognizing values and
clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes necessary to
understand and appreciate the interrelatedness of man, his culture and his
biophysical surroundings. It also entails practice in decision making and
self formulation of a code of behaviour about issues concerning
environment qualities.
According to Kindliter (1983) environmental education plays an
important role for the development of environment. According to Saxena
(1986), environmental education has relationship with man and his
activities. It is aimed at developing responsible action necessary for
preservation, conservation and improvement and its components.
(Bhaskaracharyulu, 2003) Environmental education and awareness
should bring in environmental concerns in all subject areas so that an
environmental bias permeates into all facets of one’s life and does not get
compartmentalized at one place. Environment is a common heritage and
its restoration either through preventive or a curative strategy is an
enormous task. Each individual must develop a stake and become its
protector. Environment is essentially partnership programmer in which
an individual plays a pivotal role. Life on earth depends upon the
availability of land, water, energy, climate, fuel, minerals, flora and
A comparative study of environment /7
fauna. Man with the help of technology and his efforts transform these
physical resources into goods and services for the exploding population
to raise the standard of living. This technology and the social
organization have created what is called “World Problematique” a crisis
that threatens life on earth. Environmental education should be inter-
disciplinary, drawing from biological, sociological, anthropological,
economic, and political and human resources. Environmental education
is a new emerging field of study, instruction and research. (Bhaskar,
2003) Environmental crisis are ultimately human problems. They are,
perhaps, less as a result of shortcomings in scientific knowledge than in
human environmental awareness and attitude. Resolution of the current
ecological dilemma will necessitate not only technological changes and
improved scientific knowledge, but also changes in the environmental
awareness and environmental attitude of people who utilize and are
affected by the altered technologies and advanced.
On the occasion of the First International Conference on
Environmental Education held in New Delhi in 1980, the late Mrs. India
Gandhi observed that the main purpose of environmental education is to
help arouse social consciousness and make the community aware of the
fact that the good of the individual and that of the community are both
harmed by ecological disruptions
A few researchers have tried to examine the relationships which
they felt existed between environmental awareness and environmental
attitude as well (Shabina, 1999; Dinakara, 2000).
Research studies in the Iran context, which bring out clearly the
relationship between environmental awareness and environmental
attitude of students, are not available and hence the authors have made a
modest attempt to take up the present study. In the research, Iran and
India have been chosen for doing a comparative study, because both of
them are in the Asian Developing Countries Group and environmental
issues are also increasingly taking more attention of policy into account
8/ Quarterly Journal of Education
in the recent decades. By comparing environmental awareness among
secondary school students in Iran and India and its effect on their
attitudes, not only we can evaluate comparatively content of
environmental education in these societies, but also we will test the
hypothesis that “ the more increase in environmental awareness, the more
increase in environmental attitude positively “.
Review of the literature
As we said, the purposes of environmental education have been
summarized by UNESCO as: a. to foster a clear awareness of and
concern about economic, political, social and ecological independence in
rural and urban areas; b. to provide every person with opportunities to
acquire the knowledge, values, attitudes, skills and commitment to
protect and improve the environment; c. to create new patterns of
behavior of individuals, groups, and society as a whole towards the
environment…”(Hale, 1993). Researchers have studied education as a
factor which underpins environmental awareness and attitudes.
Ostman and Parker (Ostman and Parker, 1987) have studied the
effect of education on environmental behaviors. They have conducted a
total of 336 completed interviews and generalized the findings to the
Ithaca, New York, population. They found a significant relationship
between education and environmental knowledge, environmental
awareness and attitudes.
Sudarmadi (Sudarmadi et al., 2001) carried out a research by using
a quantitative study in 1998 to examine differences in perception,
knowledge, awareness and attitude with regard to environmental
problems between educated and community groups in Jakarta. The data
obtained from a total of 537 males between 30-49 years old and the
results show that respondents in educated groups had better perception,
more detailed knowledge, were more aware, and had better attitudes in
flavor of regional and global environmental problems than those in the
community groups.
A comparative study of environment /9
Iversen (Iversen 2002) reported that level of education seems to be
important for environmental attitudes. In fact, his study indicates that
respondents with a university degree had a more positive attitude towards
environmental concern
El-Ghannam (El-Ghannam, 2003) in her work revealed that
education mildly correlated with only the limits to growth set in the
negative direction, in contradiction with what one would expect based on
the previous research suggesting that higher level of education should
positively associate with environmental concern and attitudes. She says
that the explanation of this finding may be that youth across all levels of
education are very close in terms of their attitudes towards environmental
issues. The youth do not see that economic growth as determinant to the
environment. Also, they do not feel about the problems of population it
does not exit. Khan and Matsusaka (Khan and Matsusaka, 1997) found a
positive relationship between education and environmental initiatives. In
other words, their study showed less educated workers in general
opposed environmental initiatives.
Ellis and Thomson (Ellis and Thompson, 1997) in their study
showed that the relationship between education and environmental
attitudes and concern is positive but very weak(.05).
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The present study is a correlation research examining relationship
between environmental awareness of the secondary school students and
their environmental attitude based on a comparative perspective in
Mysore (India) and Tehran (Iran). This section explains the hypothesis,
sample, instrument, procedure, scoring and statistical techniques used for
the study.
HYPOTHESES
The Following hypothesis was formulated for testing in the research:
10/ Quarterly Journal of Education
Hypothe
sis
There is a significant relationship between environmental
awareness of the secondary school students and their environmental
attitude in Mysore and Tehran.
SAMPLE
A sample of 991 (476 boys and 515 girls) secondary school students was selected from
different schools in India (Mysore city) and Iran (Tehran city), the students were
selected both form Government and private schools. Stratified Random Sampling
Technique was used to select the sample.
INSTRUMENT The tools used in the present investigation were:
Environmental Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM)
The environmental awareness of the subject was measured by using the EAAM
developed by Praveen Kumar Jha (1998), Mandal University, Madhipura. This tool
measures the extent and degree of awareness of students about environmental pollution
and its protection, as consisting of five components viz: (i) Causes of pollution, (ii)
Conservation of soil, forest and air, (iii) Energy conservation, (IV) Conservation of
human health and (v) Conservation of wild-life and animal husbandry. There are several
items in each component, thus constituting the total of 51 items on the scale. For Indian
students, the original English version and for Iranian students translated version in
Persian (by one of the author) was used. Initially, the Persian version was administered
as a pre-test to 50 boy and 50 girl Iranian students to find out the suitability of the
instruments. With a few minor revisions, the main study was continued based on the
suggestions given by the teachers on the pre-test. The test-retest reliability of the
inventory was noted to be 0.74 and external validity was found to be 0.83.
Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS)
The environmental attitude of the subject was measured by using the TEAS developed
by Haseen Taj (2001), Bangalore University. This tool measures environmental attitude
of students as consisting of six areas dealt within the scale are attitude towards: (i)
Population, (ii) Health and hygiene, (iii) Polluters, (iv) Wild life, (v) Forests and (vi)
Environmental concerns. There are several items in each area, thus constituting the total
of 61 items on the scale. For Indian students, the original English version and for
Iranian teachers translated version in Persian was used. Initially, the Persian version was
administered as a pre-test to 50 boys and 50 girls Iranian students to find out the
suitability of the instruments. With a few minor revisions, the main study was continued
based on the suggestion given by the students on the pre-test. The split-half reliability
has been found to be 0.79.
A comparative study of environment /11
Procedure
In India, the Investigator personally visited all the selected schools and met the students
for explaining the purpose of study and instructed them as how to respond to the
questionnaire. Also, for students, whenever, they had doubt in understanding questions,
Investigator made those questions very clear to them. The same procedure was done in
Iran.
SCORING
Environmental Awareness Ability Measure (EAAM)
There are 51 items in EAAM. Each agreed item carries the value of 1 mark and each
disagree item of zero mark, but the negative item are scored inversely. Thus, on the total
scale the scores ranged between 0-51. The scale gives a composite score of environment
awareness ability of the subject.
Taj Environmental Attitude Scale (TEAS)
Each item alternative is assigned a weight age ranging from 4 (strongly agree) to 1
(strongly disagree) for favorable items. In case of unfavorable items the scoring is
reversed, i.e. from 1 (strongly agree) to 4 (strongly disagree). The attitude score of an
individual is the sum total of item scores on all the six areas, the range of scores is from
61 to 244 with the higher score indicating the more favorable attitude towards
environment and vice versa.
STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
Using SPSS (windows version 10.0) statistical package, Two-way ANOVA was
employed to find out the relationship between the secondary school students in their
level of environmental awareness and environmental attitude in India and Iran.
RESULTS
The results of the Pearson Correlation Coefficient are presented in tables 1, 2, 3 and 4.
These tables presented relationship between the sub factors of environmental awareness
and environmental attitude of students in India and Iran.
The coefficients of correlation (r) between environmental awareness and
environmental attitude for students in India and Iran under study were tested for their
significance by computing the t-value. The obtained correlations were first corrected to
the nearest two decimal figures (r-correct) and the corresponding Fisher’s z functions
were found out followed by the estimation of t-values. The data and result obtained on
comparing the coefficients of correlation between environmental awareness and
environmental attitude for the different countries are presented in Table 4.
The obtained t-value is significant at 0.05 level (t = 6.82). It shows
that the degree of relationship between environmental awareness and
12/ Quarterly Journal of Education
environmental attitude is not the same for students in India and Iran. A
closer observation of the estimated values of ‘r’ shows that the
relationship between environmental awareness and environmental
attitude of Indian students is better than in case of Iranian students.
Table 1: Correlation matrix for sub factors of student’s
environmental awareness and environmental attitude for India
Students
Environmental
Awareness
Students
Environmental
Attitude
Causes
of
pollutio
n
Conservatio
n of soil,
forest, air
and etc.
Conservatio
n of human
health
Conservatio
n of wild
life and
animal
husbandry
Total
Health and
hygiene
r
**
0.353
**
0.361
**
0.401
**
0.196
*
0.470
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Wild life
r
**
0.338
**
0.369
**
0.376
**
0.184
*
0.460
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Forests
r
**
0.147
**
0.177
**
0.238
0.033
*
0.243
*
Si
g
0.001
0.000
0.000
0.45
0.000
Polluters
r
**
0.503
**
0.529
**
0.484
**
2660.
*
0.641
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Population
explosion
r
**
0.390
**
0.469
**
0.424
**
0.203
*
0.546
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Environment
al concern
r
**
0.462
**
0.617
**
0.582
**
0.286
*
0.672
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
A comparative study of environment /13
Total
r
**
0.562
**
0.626
**
0.620
**
0.306
*
0.753
*
Si
g
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
The statistical result (Table 1) indicate that in India there is no
significant relationship between one sub factor of students environmental
awareness namely ‘Conservation of wild life and animal husbandry’ and
sub factor of students environmental attitude, i.e. ‘Forests’.
Except above stated sub factor, there is significant relationship
between all sub factors of students’ environmental awareness and all sub
factors of students’ environmental attitude.
Table 2: Correlation matrix for sub factors of student’s
environmental awareness and environmental attitude for Iran
Students
Environmental
Awareness
Students
Environmental
Attitude
Causes
of
pollution
Conservation
of soil,
forest, air
and etc.
Energy
conservation
Conservation
of human
health
Conservation
of wild life
and animal
husbandry
Total
Health and
hygiene
r
**
0.134
**
0.167
0.012
0.031
0.063
**
0.144
Sig
0.003
0.000
0.799
0.498
0.167
0.001
Wild life
r
0.057
0.074
0.006
-0.052
-0.046
0.030
Sig
0.209
0.102
0.897
0.248
0.310
0.512
Forests
r
0.022
**
0.123
-0.060
*
0.102
0.027
0.083
Sig
0.628
0.006
0.187
0.024
0.544
0.066
Polluters
r
*
0.104
**
0.145
-0.044
**
0.130
0.042
**
00.14
Sig
0.021
0.001
0.331
0.004
0.348
0.002
Population
explosion
r
**
0.164
**
0.138
*
0.106
**
0.122
*
0.113
**
0.199
Sig
0.000
0.002
0.019
0.007
0.012
0.000
Environmental
concern
r
**
0.233
**
0.243
**
0.123
**
0.289
**
0.148
**
0.343
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.006
0.000
0.001
0.000
Total
r
**
0.217
**
0.262
0.053
**
0.214
*
0.115
**
0.294
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.238
0.000
0.011
0.000
* Correlation is significant at 0.05 levels (2-tailed); ** Correlation is
14/ Quarterly Journal of Education
significant at 0.01 levels (2-tailed)
** Correlation is significant at 0.01 levels (2-tailed)
Results from table 2 reveal that in Iran there are no significant
relationships among three sub factors of students environmental
awareness namely ‘Energy conservation’, ‘Conservation of human
health’ and ‘Conservation of wild life and animal husbandry’ and
students environmental attitude sub factor i.e. ‘Health and hygiene’.
There is no significant relationship between all sub factors of
students’ environmental awareness and one sub factor environmental
attitude, i.e. ‘Wild life’.There is no significant relationship between three
sub factors of students environmental awareness namely ‘Causes of
pollution’, ‘Energy conservation’ and ‘Conservation of wild life and
animal husbandry’ and student’s environmental attitude sub factor i.e.
‘Forests’.There is no significant relationship between two sub factors of
students’ environmental awareness namely, ‘Energy conservation’ and
‘Conservation of wild life and animal husbandry’ and sub factor of
environmental attitude i.e. ‘Polluters’.
Table 3: Correlation matrix for sub factors of student’s
environmental awareness and environmental attitude for India,
Iran (Overall)
Students
Environmental
Awareness
Students
Environmental Attitude
Causes
of
pollution
Conservation
of soil,
forest, air
and etc.
Energy
conservation
Conservation
of human
health
Conservation
of wild life
and animal
husbandry
Total
Health and
hygiene
r
**
0.308
**
0.342
**
0.256
**
0.348
**
0.162
**
0.421
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Wild life
r
**
0.208
**
0.236
**
110.2
**
0.187
**
0.087
**
0.275
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Forests
r
**
0.134
**
0.192
**
0.178
**
0.247
0.045
**
0.240
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.161
0.000
Polluters
r
**
0.306
**
0.396
**
0.323
**
0.355
**
0.190
**
0.476
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
A comparative study of environment /15
Population
explosion
r
**
0.307
**
0.348
**
0.323
**
0.321
**
0.171
**
0.424
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Environmental
concern
r
**
0.389
**
0.489
**
0.321
**
0.495
**
0.238
**
0.570
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Total
r
**
.4530
**
0.515
**
0.407
**
0.505
**
0.246
**
0.624
Sig
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
0.000
Result from table 3 (Overall) highlighted that there is no significant
relationship between one sub factor of students environmental awareness
namely, ‘Conservation of wild life and animal husbandry’ and sub factor
of students environmental attitude, i.e. ‘Forests’.
Except above stated sub factor, there are significant relationships between all sub
factors of students’ environmental awareness and all sub factors of students’
environmental attitude in both the countries.
Table 4: Comparison of the coefficients of correlation between
environmental awareness and environmental attitude of students in
India and Iran
Country
Statistical indices
t-values
N
r
r-correct
z
Students
India
500
0.624
0.62
0.73
6.82*
Iran
491
0.29
4
0.29
0.30
* Significant at 0.05 level
Table 4 indicates that there is relationship between environmental awareness and
environmental attitude of students in both the countries. It shows that the degree of
relationship between environmental awareness and environmental attitude is not the
same for students in India and Iran. A closer observation of the estimated values of ‘r’
shows that the relationship is more significant in the case of Indian students than in the
case of Iranian students.
In the overall there is significant relationship between sub factors of
students’ environmental awareness and students’ environmental attitude
sub factors in both the countries and therefore the formulated hypothesis
is rejected.
FINDINGS
Hypothesis 24
There is a relationship between environmental awareness and
environmental attitude of students in both the countries. It shows
that the degree of relationship between environmental awareness
16/ Quarterly Journal of Education
and environmental attitude is not the same for students in India and
Iran. A closer observation of the estimated values of ‘r’ shows that
the relationship is more marked in the case of Indian students than
in the case of Iranian students.
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http://searcheric.org/ericdb/ED412075.htm.
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Assessments of ecological awareness levels are immensely crucial in ecological awareness studies, especially for a developing country like Kazakhstan, which has struggled and is still struggling to address various environmental problems ranging from the Aral Sea to water deficiency matters. While many scholars have addressed the specific aspects of environmental problems such as air and water pollution, there is limited amount of work on addressing ecological awareness levels among the general population by local Kazakhstani scholars. This paper’s research objective was to propose a new conceptual framework for assessing ecological awareness levels. It consisted of four main dimensions: cognitive, affective, altruistic and conative dimension, for which each of the following dimensions different research instruments were introduced. For that, the paper extensively researched, emulated and re-applied the theoretical frameworks and concepts of the works of Western scholars. The aim of this research is to fill the research gap on the lack of conceptual frameworks in assessing the general public’s level of ecological awareness in Kazakhstan. The results obtained from this paper was the introduction of a new multi-dimensional framework and the applicability of three new research instruments for future academic studies in the context of Kazakhstan. These new research tools included the 15-item EEV Scale Model, 26-item Environmental Risk Perception Scale Model, and the 18-item EAS Model. This paper provided researchers with immensely valuable research instruments for pinpointing differences in environmental values, beliefs, concerns, and perceptions of different sample populations in Kazakhstan.
... Among the most prominent determinant that researchers have used and analyzed concerns the variable of knowledge, such as in studies by Salim (1982), Lozano (2006) and Kokkinen (2013). Other determinants include social and personal norms in the study by Biel and Thogersen (2007); environmental behavior in the works of and ; or environmental attitude variable by the scholarly works of Shobeiri (2005) and Arcury (1990). ...
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Environmental problems in Kazakhstan are serious issues to be dealt with, as it ranges from problems of water shortages to nationwide land degradation issues. Within that, one particular problem sticks out that has yet not been significantly scholarly studied. The problem of environmental awareness issue has been known to play a crucial role in sustainable development and pro-ecological programs and policies, as for more than five decades' various Western researcher works have outlined the positive effects of raising the level of environmental awareness among different groups of population. However, this specific research area has not been thoroughly studied in the context of a Central Asian region, particularly that of Kazakhstan. In light of these problems, this research paper aims to provide a critical literature review on environmental awareness studies in the context of Kazakhstan by examining prominent local and international scholarly works on this subject matter. Hence, the objectives of this paper is to provide a foundation of knowledge on the topic; identify research gaps to prevent research inconsistencies; uncover previous research findings and research methodologies used; and compare and contrast the research findings in order to answer unresolved open questions. For that, a total of 82 studies were analyzed.
... Environmental literacy holds the key and gives window of hope for repairing the damage done to our earth caused by little knowledge. Environmental awareness can be achieved through planned learning programmes, which would impart knowledge, skills, values and attitudes in order to develop responsible lifestyles that would be in harmony with the environment (Shobeiri, 2005). ...
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... προσοχή πολλών ερευνητών (Shobeiri, 2014;Wargo, Brown, Cullen, Addiss, & Alderman, 2002;Shenoy, & Nazeran, 2006;Shin, Lee, Ahn, Yeo, Byun, Lee, & Park, 2005;Gordon, Mackay, & Rehfuess, 2004;Miller, 2003). Περιβαλλοντικές μετρήσεις όπως θερμοκρασία, υγρασία, φωτεινότητα, αλλά και μετρήσεις συγκεντρώσεων αερίων, όπως διοξείδιο του άνθρακα, μονοξείδιο του άνθρακα και μεθάνιο καταγράφονται σε καθημερινή βάση πλέον σε πολλές σχολικές μονάδες (Lee & Chang, 2000;Coley & Beisteiner, 2002;Uasuf, Jatakanon, James, Kharitonov, Wilson, & Barnes, 1999;Wiedmann, & Minx, 2008;Norbäck, Torgen, & Edling, 1990). ...
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Ecological or environmental programs integrated into science courses in the elementary grades can make children aware that they can have either a positive or a negative effect on their environment. The following bibliography was compiled from articles and dissertations on environmental education and children's awareness, attitudes, and perceptions of the natural environment. Citations were retrieved from searches of Ecology Abstracts, ERIC, Dissertation Abstracts, General Science Index, and PsycLIT using online or CD-ROM databases. Topics covered include curriculum development, promoting ecological awareness in young children, development of tests for environmental attitudes, summer nature camps, learning opportunities in nearby natural resource areas, field trips to public gardens, children's experiences with vegetation on school grounds, inner-city attitudes, rural attitudes, and waste management. Contains 67 references. (PVD)
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A quantitative study was conducted in 1998 to investigate differences in perception, knowledge, awareness, and attitude with regard to environmental problems between educated and community groups and to identify human-dimension factors to improve public perception, knowledge, awareness, and attitude in relation to global environmental conservation concerns in developing countries. Educated and community groups in Jakarta were interviewed, and data obtained from a total of 537 males aged 30-49 years were analyzed. The data were evaluated by the chi-squared test and logistic regression was applied after factor analysis. The results show that: (1) The perception, knowledge, awareness, and attitude of educated subjects in regard to regional and global environmental problems were much better than those of subjects in the community group; (2) The highest 'yes' response in the community group was in regard to perception of AIDS (82.9%). Few subjects in the community group knew the effects and the cause or source of environmental problems, however, they were well informed about AIDS (86.4% for effects and 93.9% for cause or source). The conclusions are: (1) subjects in the educated group had better perception, more detailed knowledge, were more aware, and had better attitudes in regard to regional and global environmental problems than those in the community group; (2) more education is needed to develop environmental actions and ethics in developing countries; (3) non-formal environmental education through popular mass media should be used more widely and frequently, and more detailed information on the environment should be provided to literate people by newspapers and other means.
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Environmental problems such as air and water pollution, urban garbage and climate changesin urban areas are the results of human behavior. Only change in human behavior can reduce theseenvironmental problems. Thus studying attitude and behavior of people is a precondition to change thissituation. So the main objective of this study was to find out individual and social factors affectingenvironmental behavior of urban citizens. To achieve this objective a conceptual framework derivedout from review of literature to examine relationships among personal factors, attitude towardsenvironment and environmental behavior. To examine this conceptual model, 1200 individuals ofTehran residents were randomly chosen and interviewed about their environmental behaviors,opinions, knowledge and sources of information on environment. The data were analyzed usingcorrelation analysis, student’s t test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and path analysis by SPSSsoftware. It is emerged from the present study that education and improving problem-based knowledgeof Tehran residents can change their environmental attitude and increase their feeling of stress towardsenvironment. These changes in turn improve their preparedness to act friendly with the environment,particularly with the help of environmental legislation. Results of the study showed that environmentalbehavior of people in urban areas directly and indirectly are under the influence of variables like age,gender, income, education, problem-based knowledge, environmental legislation, environmentalattitude, feeling of stress and preparedness to act of the residents. All these together can influence andchange people’s behavior to preserve urban environment.
Environmental Education in India Role to Teacher in environmental education, Edutracks Environmental awareness, environmental attitude and teaching practices of elementary school teachers of Mysore
  • A Reference-Bhaskar
  • Yerroju
Reference-Bhaskar A. Yerroju (2003). Environmental Education in India. New Frontiers in Education, Vol. XXXIII, No. 3, p. 201.-Bhaskaracharyulu, Y. (2003). Role to Teacher in environmental education, Edutracks, Vol. 2, No. 5.-Dinakara, S.A. (2000). Environmental awareness, environmental attitude and teaching practices of elementary school teachers of Mysore district in environmental related topics. M.A. Dissertation, Department of Education, Mysore University.
the extent of youth concern regarding environmental Culture and the environment in the Pacific Northwest
  • A R Ellis
  • R J Thompson
EL-GHANNAM, A. R. (2003) the extent of youth concern regarding environmental-ELLIS, R. J. & THOMPSON, F.(1997) Culture and the environment in the Pacific Northwest. The American political Science Review, 91, 885-867.
Manual for Environmental Attitude Scale
  • Haseen Taj
Haseen Taj (2001). Manual for Environmental Attitude Scale, Agra, India, Nandini Enterprises.
Demand for environmental goods: Evidence from voting patterns on California initiatives
  • M E Matsusaka
  • J G Ostman
  • R E Parker
-KHAN, M. E. & MATSUSAKA, J. G. (1997) Demand for environmental goods: Evidence from voting patterns on California initiatives. Journal of Law and Economics, 6 -OSTMAN, R. E. & PARKER, J. L. (1987) Impact of education, age, newspaper, and television on environmental knowledge, concern, and behaviors. Journal of Environmental Education, 19, 3-9.
Manual for environment awareness ability measure
  • Praveen Kumar
Praveen Kumar Jha (1998). Manual for environment awareness ability measure, Agra, India: National Psychological Corporation.