A comparative study of Canadian and Taiwanese grade 5 children?s environmental behaviors, attitudes, concerns, emotional dispositions, and knowledge

Abstract

The multicultural nature of today's elementary school classrooms in Australia, Europe, and North America bring interesting cultural and linguistic influences to constructivist-oriented environmental education programs. Students' prior knowledge, beliefs, values, and attitudes might affect their understandings about and actions toward the environment. This study explored the cultural influences on children's self-reported environmental behaviors, perceptions, and understandings; investigated the differences between two culturally distinct groups; and developed models of children's responsible environmental behavior. English and Mandarin questionnaires developed with reasonable validity and reliability were used to collect data regarding children's environmental behaviors, attitudes, concerns, emotional dispositions, knowledge, and situational factors causing children's irresponsible behavior. Useable data collected from 278 grade 5 children from Victoria, BC, Canada, and 483 grade 5 children from Kaohsiung, Taiwan, were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests, and multiple regression analyses. The results revealed more similarities than differences with small to moderate effect sizes within and between these Canadian and Taiwanese children. Television was the most popular source of environmental information for both groups of children. Canadian children had much more variety and frequency of nature activities than Taiwanese children. Children from both countries expressed positive environmental behavior, positive attitudes toward the environment, high concern about the environmental problems, high emotional disposition toward current environmental situations, and moderate environmental knowledge. The original model of children's responsible environmental behavior did not fully reflect these Canadian and Taiwanese data; therefore, alternative models were developed. Affective variables appear to be stronger influences on children's responsible environmental behavior than the cognitive variable.

Northeastern Brazilian students’ representations of Atlantic Forest fragments

“…Similar concerns were observed in a study undertaken with Taiwanese and English children of the same age group, with these children demonstrating environmental awareness and positive attitudes toward preservation (Huang and Yore 2003).…”

Managing Air Pollution: How Does Education Help?

“…Besides, gender appeared to play a role in elucidating the variation in the two components of environmental literacy variables along with environmental attitude and uses. Female pre-service teachers tended to have more positive attitudes and have more responsible actions toward the environment than male pre-service teachers, which is in line with other studies (Alp et al, 2006;Berberoglu and Tosunoglu, 1995;Huang and Yore, 2003;Chu et al, 2007;Tikka et al, 2000;Yilmaz et al, 2004;Worsley and Skrzypiec, 1998;Zelezny et al, 2000). For example, according to Tikka et al (2000), whereas males are more likely to emphasize mastering nature and taking benefits from natural resources, females obtain a more emotional attitude toward nature.…”

My science class and expected career choices—a structural equation model of determinants involving Abu Dhabi high school students

“…When students are well exposed to school science, they are likely to make informed decisions and actions on environmental challenges (NRC 1996). Huang and Yore (2003) suggested that prior knowledge as well as values, beliefs, attitudes, concerns, and emotional dispositions of learners might influence their understanding about and capabilities to act toward the environment. Teaching needs to be based on students' knowledge, attitudes, and conceptions of the environmental protection issues (Schreiner and Sjøberg 2004).…”