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© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6969
ATTITUDES OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THREE
JORDANIAN UNIVERSITIES TOWARDS CLIMATE
CHANGE IMPACTS ON AGRICULTURE AND A PROPOSED
EDUCATIONAL COURSE ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGE
Reham W Tahtamouni1, Hana Danaa1, Tamadour Al-Qudah2, Ayman Mazahreh1, Rida A Shibli3,
Nizar Haddad4, Tamara S Al-Qudah5, *
1Department of Social and Applied Sciences, Princess Alia University College, Al-Balqa Applied University, Amman, Jordan
2Department of Nutrition and Food Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Mutah University, Karak, Jordan
3Department of Horticulture and Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
4Bee Research Department, National Agricultural Research Center, P.O. Box 639, Baq’a 19381, Jordan
5Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research (HMCSR), University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
ABSTRACT
Climate change is reported all around as one of
the major concerning issues due to its adverse im-
pacts on many aspects of life including agriculture.
In Jordan such important issue is not researched ex-
tensively yet. In this study, (250) undergraduate stu-
dents in three Jordanian public universities have re-
sponded to a questionnaire that asses their attitudes
toward the climate change impacts on agriculture.
Data revealed that agriculture is highly impacted by
climate change from the point view of the students
(total mean -4.00). Moreover, students saw that cli-
mate change has also impacted, while they saw that
climate change negative impacts on animal produc-
tion were medium (3.62). Meanwhile, most of the
participants saw that food industries sector was
strongly altered climate change. On other hand, the
participants agreed to a medium level with the con-
tents of a proposed educational university course to
enrich their knowledge about climate change, while
most of them preferred educational seminars to
strengthen their recognition about climate change
and its consequences on agriculture. Meanwhile, no
statistical significant differences were observed at
level of (0.05) in the attitudes of undergraduate stu-
dents towards climate change negative impacts on
agriculture attributed to gender, major and academic
year. Our results might be helpful for future studies
that would investigate the level of environmental
awareness of Jordanian people.
KEYWORDS:
Agriculture, Climate change, Impacts, Jordan, Undergrad-
uate students, Universities.
INTRODUCTION
Climate change has been globally announced as
one of the complicated world concerns since the last
20 years [1-2]. This disturbing issue was explained
as change in weather in response to human activities
that might alter the at-mospheric composition [3-5].
As a result, earth started to experience an increase in
the average to reach 0.6 °C during the 20th Century
[1] and the global warming scenario is expected to
continue to record 2-3 °C increase in earth tempera-
ture by the end of the 21st Century [5-6]. The conse-
quences of climate change are highly deleterious as
they can as they can jeopardize human welfare and
existence [7]. This, in addition to pest infestation
and diseases spread like malaria [8]. So all aspects of
life are under direct threat of these extremely serious
impacts including agriculture, and when agriculture
is jeopardized this means that food security is under
the test. Due to climate change, temperature and pre-
cipitation have witnessed sharp variations which af-
fected plant growth patterns and crop yield [9]. The
developing countries are highly impacted by climate
change as rural communities have to cope with these
impacts by improving their adaptive capacities. In a
small country like Jordan, natural resources are un-
der pressure of climate change and high population
which has in-creased as a result of continues asylum
waves refugees from the surrounding countries [10-
11].
Upgrading people understanding regarding the
hazardous outcomes of climate change is a crucial
need to include the society as a part of climate
change mitigation plan. Recently, many countries
have included environ-mental education as a part of
their education strategies from elementary school to
the university due to the effectiveness of this way to
improve environmental awareness among communi-
ties [12-13]. Awareness of uni-versity students re-
gard climate change was reported as a keynote indi-
cator that reflects the general knowledge of people
about this phenomenon [13-14]. Many studies have
investigated the level of school and university stu-
dents' knowledge about climate change. For example
in Nigeria undergraduate of two universities were
found to possess high level of knowledge regard cli-
mate change as education played a great role in en-
riching their awareness [15]. In Taiwan, only 28%
of university students were found to be highly con-
cerned with impacts of climate change which made
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6970
them adopt more environmental friendly life styles
[16]. Another study reported that undergraduate stu-
dents of Turkish universities showed lower level of
climate change awareness than the expected [17]. In
Jordan, few studies have investigated attitudes of
Jordanians toward climate change through studying
the level of environmental awareness of students at
university levels [18] while most other studies fo-
cused on level of teacher's awareness at school level
rather than students [19]. So, no previous studies on
how agricultural sectors were impacted by climate
change has been conducted in Jordan yet. So we
aimed to investigate the attitudes of undergraduate
students in three public Jordanian universities to-
ward climate change impacts on agriculture. Also we
aimed to find out students attitudes toward contents
of a proposed selective university course that might
improve their information about climate change, and
which of the proposed solutions might improve their
information about climate change impacts on agri-
culture.
Study Methodology. Descriptive approach
was used to suite the objectives of our study and a
questionnaire was prepared to collect data. The par-
ticipants were undergraduate student were selected
randomly from both gender studying three Jordanian
universi-ties: Mu’tah University (total number of un-
dergraduate students = 16073), Princess Alia Uni-
versity Collage/ Al Balqa’ Applied University (total
number of undergraduate students = 2700) and Uni-
versity of Jordan (total number of undergraduate stu-
dents = 31855).
The questionnaires (250) were distributed to
the students (236) The following Tables (1-4) show
the study sample demographic characteristics:
Table (1) showed that (13.56.5%) of the study
sample were from Princess Alia University Col-
lage/Al- Balqa’ Applied University (this college is
for females students), (38.56%) were from Mu’tah
University (both gender), and (47.88%) were from
University of Jordan (both gender).
The participants in Table (2) showed that males
were (16.5%) while females comprised (83.5%)
of the examined sample.
Table (3) consists the demographic distribution
students majors where (46.6%) of them were from
scien-tific majors; (53.4%) were from humanitarian
majors.
In Table (4) (29.2%) were first year students,
(34.3%) were from sec-ond year, (16.1%) were from
third year and (20.3%) were from forth year.
Data Collection. Quantitative approaches were
used to collect responses of the students of the study
sample.
The questionnaire contained two parts:
Section One: Demographic Variables (gender,
major and academic year).
TABLE 1
Distribution of the study sample
University
Frequency
Percentage
Prince Alia Collage
32
13.56
Mu’tah University
91
38.56
University of Jordan
113
47.88
Total
236
100.0
TABLE 2
Demographic Characteristics of Gender
Gender
Frequency
Percentage
Male
39
16.5
Female
197
83.5
Total
236
100.0
TABLE 3
Demographic Characteristics of Specialist
Major
Frequency
Percentage
Scientific
110
46.6
Humanitarian
126
53.4
Total
236
100.0
TABLE 4
Demographic Characteristics to Academic Year
Academic Year
Frequency
Percentage
1st year
69
29.2
2nd year
81
34.3
3rd year
38
16.1
4th year
48
20.3
Total
236
100.0
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6971
TABLE 5
Results of Cronbach's alpha test
Variables
Statements
Cronbach Alpha
Level of Students' awareness of the adverse effects of climate change
on agriculture
1-6
0.774
Level of Students' awareness of the harmful consequences of climate
change on plant production
1-9
0.705
Level of Students' awareness of the negative consequences of cli-
mate change on animal production
1-5
0.781
Level of Students' awareness of the harmful effects of climate change
on the food industries
1-7
0.810
Students' attitudes toward the contents of a proposed elective univer-
sity course to improve their information of climate change
1-8
0.832
Students 'attitudes toward some solutions that may contribute to im-
proving students' knowledge about climate change and its conse-
quences on agriculture
1-5
0.768
All Questions
40
0.879
Section Two: Attitudes of undergraduate stu-
dents in three Jordanian Universities towards climate
change negative impacts on agriculture, and it’s con-
tains six dimensions:
1: Agriculture in general.
2: Plant production sector.
3: The negative impacts on animal production
sector.
4: Food industries sector.
5: The contents of a proposed elective univer-
sity course to improve their knowledge of climate
change.
6: The suggested solutions that may contribute
to improving students' information about climate
change and its consequences on agriculture.
Study Hypotheses. H0: The differences in stu-
dent's attitudes toward climate change negative im-
pacts on agriculture and a proposed educational
course about climate change attributed to gender,
major and academic year are not statically signifi-
cant.
Validity. The questionnaire was distributed to
five academic reviewers from faculties of Agricul-
ture at Al Balqa Ap-plied University, Mutah Unver-
sity and University of Jordan in addition to three ag-
ricultural experts from Na-tional Agricultural Re-
search Center (NARC), to take their opi nions about
the questionnaire statements, and all their comments
were taken in full consideration.
Reliability. Cronbach's alpha test was used to
test internal consistency for all variables , and the re-
sult were generally acceptable (higher than 0.6), with
a whole reliability coefficient of (0.705-0.810) (Ta-
ble (5).
Data Analysis Techniques. Data was analyzed
using (SPSS) and statistical tests below were ap-
plied:
1. Cronbach's Alpha reliability (α).
2. Frequencies and percentages.
3. Means and standard deviations.
4. One Sample T-test.
5. MANOVA test to rate the variance in the
responses according to the demographic variables.
The scale of the study included five Likert
scales:
Very
high
High
Medium
Low
Very
low
5
4
3
2
1
Low degree (1.00 - 2.33), the medium degree
(2.34 – 3.67), and the high degree (3.68 -5.00).
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Q1: What are the attitudes of student towards
climate change negative impacts on agriculture in
general?
Data showed that means of level of the under-
graduate students approval on the paragraphs about
climate change negative impacts on agriculture
ranged between (3.18- 4.31), and the whole level of
their approval scored a total mean of (4.00), imply-
ing that the participants see that climate change im-
pacts on agriculture are of high level (Table 6).
Moreover it was clear from Table 6 that statement
(5) was the most approved paragraph by the students
as they saw that climate change may cause famines
in the world at high level (4.35) (Table 6). Also,, stu-
dent agreed with statement (3) to a medium level
(3.41) (Table 6).
From the attitudes scored in Table 6, it can be
said that the participants agree highly with the fact
that climate change comprises a serious threat to ag-
riculture worldwide. Threats of climate change on
agriculture were re-ported in many studies. For ex-
ample, climate change was reported as the main
threat to agricultural sector in developing countries
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6972
TABLE 6
The level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate change
negative impacts on agriculture in general
No Statements Mean Std. Deviation Item Importance
Importance
Level
5
Climate change may cause famines
in the world
4.35 0.75 1
High
4
Climate change threatens agriculture
in the world
4.29 0.85 2
High
6
Climate change leads prices for agri-
cultural products of to increase
4.16 0.84 3
High
2
Climate change negatively affects
agricultural production in Jordan
4.02 1.15 4
High
1
Climate change affects the agricul-
tural sector in the world
3.75 1.29 5
High
3
The consequences of climate change
on agriculture are always negative
3.41 1.42 6
Medium
Total 4.00 0.42 High
TABLE 7
One Sample T-test to show the level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative impacts on agriculture in general
Dimension Mean
St.
Deviation
T-
Tabulated
T-
Calculated
df sig
The impact of climate change
on agriculture
4.00 0.42 1.96 36.638 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05).
as they are suffering from limited resources, in-
creased temperatures and reduced precipitation [10].
Added to this Alam et al., 2011 [20] reported that
threats of climate change would negatively impact
agricultural productivity worldwide which would
jeopardize with time sustainability of agriculture,
global economy, social security and environment.
It can be seen from Table (7) that the total mean
of respondents was (4.00), (t) calculated = (36.638),
and its more than (t) tabulated (1.96), which r=re-
veals that the students see that agriculture is signifi-
cantly influenced by climate change.
Q2: What is the level of undergraduate stu-
dent's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative impacts on plant production?
In Table (8) the means of this section were be-
tween (4.53 – 2.60), and the whole paragraphs of this
question scored a total mean of (4.02), which means
participants agree highly that climate change impacts
plant production. Statement (8) (Climate change
threatens irrigated agriculture) came first with mean
of (4.53), as students saw that irrigated agriculture is
threatened by climate change at high level. Mean-
while, the students saw that some agricultural prac-
tices by farmers contribute to in-creasing the nega-
tive consequences of climate change on plant pro-
duction but at medium level with mean of (2.60) as
you can see in Table 8.
Climate change was reported to result in a seri-
ous reduction in productivity of cash crops like
wheat and rice which jeopardizes food security [21].
Also, Southern Africa is expected to lose more than
30% of maize, by 2030, while Asia is expected to
lose 10% of its production of rice, millet and maize
[22].
Table (9) showed that the total mean of re-
spondents about the negative impacts of climate
change on plant production was high (4.02) (t) cal-
culated = (41.698), while (t) Tabulated is (1.96),
which indicated that according to students in our
study, climate change affects plant production sig-
nificantly at level of (0.05).
Q3: What is the level of undergraduate stu-
dent's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative consequences on animal produc-
tion?
Data showed that undergraduate students saw that
climate change negative influences on animal pro-
duction was at medium level as the total mean of
their responses scored (3.62) (Table 10). Meanwhile,
statement (4) scored first with mean of (4.57), which
indicated that the students see that climate change
contributes highly to increasing prices of animal
products. On the other hand, the students saw that the
negative consequences of climate change on animal
production (statement 1) were of low level (Table
10). It's clear from student's response towards state-
ment (1) that they don’t have enough information
about the size of risk facing animal production sector
due to climate change. According to Baumgard et al.,
2012 [23] the consequences of climate change on an-
imal production is expected to be severe, as higher
temperatures will decrease dairy production, animal
weight gain, reproduction, and it would increase
spread of diseases among livestock, that will all re-
sult in a shortage in animal products worldwide.
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6973
TABLE 8
The level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative impacts on plant production
No Statements Mean
Std. Devia-
tion
Item Im-
portance
Importance
Level
8
Climate change threatens irrigated agriculture
4.53 0.50 1
High
3
Climate change increases the soil salinity
4.48 0.50 2
High
9
Climate change contributes to the increase in
the prices of agricultural crops worldwide
4.47 0.50 3
High
2
The rise in temperatures caused by climate
change negatively affects plant production
4.44 0.55 4
High
4
Climate change contributes to decreasing rain
fall.
4.44 0.50 4
High
5
Climate change contributes to the spread of in-
sect infections and diseases that threaten plant
production
4.42 0.49 6
High
1
Climate change negatively affects plant pro-
duction sector
3.51 1.39 7
Medium
7
Climate change threatens rain-fed agriculture
3.29 1.43 8
Medium
6
Some agricultural practices by farmers con-
tribute to increase the negative impacts of cli-
mate change on plant production
2.60 1.44 9
Medium
Total 4.02 0.38 High
TABLE 9
One Sample T-test to show the level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative impacts on plant production
Dimension Mean
St.
Deviation
T-
Tabulated
T-
Calculated
df sig
The Impact of climate change
on plant production 4.02 0.38 1.96 41.698 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05)
TABLE 10
Level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate change negative impacts on
animal production
No Statements Mean
Std. De-
viation
Item-
Importance
Importance
Level
4
Climate change contributes to higher
prices for animal products 4.57 0.50 1
High
3
Climate change contributes to reducing
feed production globally 4.39 0.49 2
High
5
Climate change contributes to higher pro-
duction costs in the animal production
sector
4.07 1.07 3
High
2
The rise in temperatures caused by cli-
mate change contributes to spread of dis-
eases and epidemics among animals
2.94 1.45 4
Medium
1
Climate change negatively affects animal
production sector 2.15 1.18 5
Low
Total
3.62
0.47
Medium
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6974
TABLE 11
One Sample T-test the level of undergraduate student's approval on the para-graphs about
climate change negative impacts on animal production
Dimension Mean
St.
Deviation
T-
Tabulated
T-
Calculated
df sig
The Impact of climate change
on animal production 3.62 0.47 1.96 20.318 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05)
In Table (11), the total mean of respondents
about the negative impact of climate change on ani-
mal production was (3.62), (t) calculated = (20.318),
and its more than value of (t) Tabulated (1.96), which
means that there is a significant effect of climate
change on animal production at level of (0.05) from
the students perspectives.
Q4: What is the level of undergraduate stu-
dent's approval on the paragraphs about climate
change negative impacts on food industries?
Table (12) revealed that most of the students
see that climate change negative impacts highly food
indus-tries, and student responses ranged between
(4.62– 3.86). Meanwhile, most of the undergraduate
students agreed with statement (3) as they saw that
the level of the negative impacts on the amount of
food products available to the individuals was of
high level and scored first with mean of (4.62), and
standard deviation (0.49) (Table 12). However,
statement (4) (Climate change affects the nutritional
value of industrial food products) scored last with
mean of (3.86), and a standard deviation of (1.15),
which is also of high level (Table 12). It can be con-
cluded from student's responses towards the para-
graphs of this section, that they consider that climate
change would impact food industry and security
highly especially in terms of food availability. Ac-
cording to FAO document [24] on climate change
and food security (2008), climate change is expected
to impact the four pillars of food security; food avail-
ability, food accessibility, food utilization and food
systems stability.
TABLE 12
Level of undergraduate student's approval on the paragraphs about climate change
negative impacts on food industries
No Statements Mean
Std. De-
viation
Item Im-
portance
Importance
Level
3
The phenomenon of climate change negatively
affects the amount of food products available to
the individual
4.62 0.49 1
High
1
Climate change negatively affects the food in-
dustries 4.46 0.50 2
High
2
Climate change contributes to increasing the
speed of food products spoilage due to high tem-
peratures
4.39 0.58 3
High
6
Climate change contributes to high prices of in-
dustrial food products 4.31 0.77 4
High
5
Climate change contributes to the high cost of
production resulting from the food industry 4.26 0.77 5
High
7
Climate change negatively affects food security
4.22
0.80
6
High
4
Climate change affects the nutritional value of
industrial food products 3.86 1.15 7
High
Total
4.30
0.50
High
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6975
TABLE 13
One Sample T-test to show the level of undergraduate student's approval on the
paragraphs about climate change negative impacts on food industries
Dimension Mean
St.
Deviation
T-
Tabulated
T-
calculated
df sig
The impact of climate change
on food industries 4.30 0.50 1.96 40.362 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05)
Food production and distribution and will change
purchasing power and market. Many studies have
also reported that 600 million people will be at risk
of hunger if temperature arise 3°C, while its ex-pec-
ted that 1300 million people would face hunger
worldwide in 2080 [25]
Table (13) revealed that the total mean of re-
spondents was (4.30), (t) calculated = (40.362), and
its more than value of (t) tabulated (1.96), that im-
plies that influences of climate change on food in-
dustries at level of (0.05) are significant according to
respondents responses.
Q5: What is the level of undergraduate stu-
dent's approval on contents of a proposed educa-
tional university course to improve their knowledge
of climate change?
The obtained results revealed that means of the
undergraduate students responses on question (5)
ranged between (4.18 – 2.69), and they agreed to a
medium level with the contents of a proposed educa-
tional university course to improve their knowledge
about climate change with a total mean of (3.61) (Ta-
ble 14). Statement (1) came first with mean of
(4.18)and it’s of high level (Table 14), which implies
that most of the participants agree highly with the
idea of attending a university course to improve their
awareness about the impacts of climate change.
Freije et al., 2017 [13] explained in her study about
the level of AL- Bahrein University students aware-
ness of climate change that education is the best way
to make people more aware about climate change.
Currently,
TABLE 14
Level of Students attitudes toward the contents of proposed educational university course
to improve their knowledge of climate change
No Statements Mean
Std. De-
viation
Item Im-
portance
Importance
Level
1
Studying environmental awareness through a
course is one of the best ways to improve un-
dergraduate students' knowledge about climate
change
4.18 0.83 1
High
6
I would like to know the consequences of cli-
mate change on food security 4.17 0.78 2
High
5
I would like to know how climate change af-
fects agricultural 3.94 1.25 3
High
7
I would like to know the consequences of cli-
mate change on global warming 3.91 1.03 4
High
4
I would like to know the impact of climate
change 3.69 1.33 5
High
8
I would like to know sustainable methods to
decrease negative consequences
of climate
change
3.27 1.36 6
Medium
2
I would like to study a university course on en-
vironment and climate change 3.04 1.51 7
Medium
3
I would like to know environmental and cli-
matic concepts 2.69 1.50 8
Medium
Total
3.61
0.53
Medium
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6976
TABLE 15
One Sample T-test to show the students attitudes about the contents of a proposed educational university
course to improve their knowledge of climate change
Dimension
Mean
St.Deviation
T-Tabulated
T-calculated
df
sig
students attitudes about the contents
of a proposed selective university
course to improve their information
about climate change
3.61 0.53 1.96 17.721 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05)
environmental education of climate change impacts
from elementary school to the university level is con-
sidered as the most effective method to boost the en-
vironmental awareness worldwide [12, 26-28]
In (Table 15), the total mean of students atti-
tudes about the contents of a proposed educational
university course to upgrade their knowledge of cli-
mate change was (3.61), (t) calculated = (17.721),
and its more than value of (t) tabulated (1.96), and so
it can be concluded that the students have a statisti-
cally significant positive attitudes towards the con-
tents of a proposed selective university course to up-
grade their knowledge of climate change.
Q6: What is the level of student's attitudes to-
ward some solutions that may contribute to improv-
ing students’ knowledge about climate change and
its impact on agriculture?
Table (16) showed that the participants ap-
proved highly the suggested solutions in question (6)
as the total mean scored (4.12). Meanwhile, most
students in the study sample scored statement (1)
first as they saw that attending educational seminars
on climate change was the best solutions (mean =
4.37) to enhance their knowledge about climate
change and its consequences on agriculture (Table
16).
TABLE 16
Students’ attitudes toward some solutions that may contribute to improving students’ knowledge about
climate change and its impact on agriculture
No Statements Mean
Std. De-
viation
Item Im-
portance
Importance
Level
1
I prefer attending educational seminars on climate change
4.37
0.48
1
High
2
Activation of the media by providing awareness programs on
climate change 4.21 0.76 2
High
5
Inclusion of an elective university course on climate change
to improve university students' information about climate
change and its impact on agriculture.
4.17 0.79 3
High
3
Inclusion of a course for school students at basic education
stage on climate change phenomenon 4.03 1.02 4
High
4
I prefer inviting people specializing in agriculture to talk
about the consequences of climate change on agriculture 3.85 1.15 5
High
Total
4.12
0.73
High
TABLE 17
One Sample T-test to show the Students’ attitudes about some solutions that may contribute to improving
students’ knowledge about climate change and its impact on agriculture
Dimension Mean
St.Devia-
tion
T-Tabu-
lated
T-calcu-
lated df sig
Students’ attitudes about some solu-
tions that may contribute to improv-
ing students’ knowledge about cli-
mate change impacts on agriculture
4.12 0.73 1.96 23.514 235 0.00*
(t) Tabulated = 1.96, (t) value = 3.00 * Significant at level of (0.05)
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6977
TABLE 18
Results of MANOVA test for differences in the attitudes of undergraduate students toward climate change
negative impacts on agriculture and a proposed educational course about climate change according to
gender, major and academic year at level of (0.5).
Source
Dependent Variable
Climate Change Impacts on
Agriculture
Type III Sum of
Squares
df
Mean Square
F
Sig.
Gender
Hotelling’s
Trace = 0.009
P value =
0.956
Agriculture
.136
1
.136
.765
.383
Plant production
0.000024
1
0.000024
.000
.990
Animal production
.114
1
.114
.506
.478
Food industries
.099
1
.099
.405
.525
Contents
.013
1
.013
.045
.833
Solutions
.004
1
.004
.007
.934
Major
Hot
elling’s
Trace = 0.043
P value =
0.984
Agriculture
.013
1
.013
.072
.788
Plant production
.075
1
.075
.523
.470
Animal production
.015
1
.015
.065
.800
Food industries
.154
1
.154
.630
.428
Contents
.454
1
.454
1.603
.207
Solutions
.028
1
.028
.053
.818
Academic
Year
Hotelling’s
Trace = 0.048
P value =
0.158
Agriculture
.038
3
.013
.071
.975
Plant production
.227
3
.076
.526
.665
Animal production
.073
3
.024
.108
.955
Food industries
.110
3
.037
.149
.930
Contents
.986
3
.329
1.160
.326
Solutions
1.389
3
.463
.877
.454
*: Significant at level of (0.05).
Table (17) showed that the total mean of stu-
dents’ attitudes about some solutions that may con-
tribute to improving students’ information about cli-
mate change and its consequences on agriculture was
(4.12), (t) calculated = (23.514), and its more than
value of (t) tabulated (1.96), which indicated that the
students have significant responses towards some so-
lutions that may contribute to enhance students’ in-
formation about climate change and its impact on ag-
riculture. These results agreed with the outcomes of
Ochieng and Koske (2013) study [29] about the level
of climate change awareness and perception in
Kenya among primary school teachers in Kisumu
municipality
Q 7: Are the attitudes of undergraduate stu-
dent's towards climate change negative impacts on
agriculture and a proposed educational course about
climate change as attributed to gender, major and ac-
ademic year statically different?.
According to Table (18) it's clear that differ-
ences in attitudes of undergraduate students in the
three Jordanians universities towards climate change
negative consequences on agriculture and a proposed
educational course about climate change attributed
to gender, major and academic year were not signif-
icant at level of (0.05). This was similar to Zaidat
(2013) [19]; who had studied the level of social stud-
ies teachers in Jordan regards environmental aware-
ness and then found the relation with some variables.
CONCLUSIONS
It can be concluded from our results that the un-
dergraduate students in the study sample see that cli-
mate change has adverse impacts on agriculture es-
pecially on sectors of plant production and food in-
dustries. Also, the students revealed that studying
environmental awareness through a course is one of
the top ways to upgrade undergraduate students' in-
formation about climate change. Moreover most of
the student saw that attending educational seminars
on climate change is the prime solution that might
contribute to improving students’ knowledge about
climate change and its consequences on agriculture.
Investigating the attitudes of population toward such
big threat is of immense importance to find out their
level of awareness toward climate change. This
would allow setting plans to enhance their awareness
to influence their behavior to adapt more green prac-
tices that would participate in reducing such harmful
effects. So our study might be helpful for future stud-
ies that would investigate the level of environmental
awareness in Jordanian society as the attitudes of
university undergraduate students toward climate
change might hopefully be a useful indicator.
© by PSP Volume 29 – No. 08/2020 pages 6969-6979 Fresenius Environmental Bulletin
6978
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Received: 03.04.2020
Accepted: 02.05.2020
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Tamara S Al-Qudah
Hamdi Mango Center for Scientific Research
(HMCSR)
The University of Jordan,
11942 Amman – Jordan
e-mail: t.alqudah@ju.edu.jo
