Philippine E-Journals

Awareness, Knowledge, and Attitude of Instructors, Parents and Students about Environmental Education

Marisol Solis-foronda

 

Abstract:

Environmental education has been a part of the school curriculum in the country, particularly in public schools. It primarily aims to educate students on the importance of the environment and should focus on the effects of climate change. This study assessed the awareness, knowledge, and attitude (AKA) of instructors, students, and parents about environmental education with emphasis on climate change, as a global issue. Te descriptive-comparative type of research was used as the design of the study. An adapted instrument from Te New Ecological Paradigm (Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000), New Environmental Paradigm/Dominant Social Paradigm (La Trobe & Acott, 2000) and the ecological knowledge questionnaire (Morrone, Mancl, & Carr, 2001) was used to measure the respondents’ levels of awareness, knowledge, and attitude as well as their levels of self-efcacy. Te returned surveys represented responses from 12 NSTP instructors, 304 college NSTP students, and 200 parents. Descriptive and inferential statistics such as mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and PostHoc tests were utilized to analyze the data. Results show statistically significant differences among the groups regarding the levels of awareness, knowledge, and attitude as related to environmental issues. Te NSTP instructors scored highest for all AKA components as compared. Moreover, factors such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and preference of leisure activities resulted in differences among the groups regarding their levels of environment awareness, knowledge and attitude. Te results of this study may assist environmental specialist, instructors, and school districts in the evaluation of environmental education curricula.