From Thoughts to Actions: The Importance of Climate Change Education in Enhancing Students’ Self-Efficacy

Abstract

The relation between the understanding and belief of the site-specific dangers of climate change and the behaviour that individuals take to mitigate their impacts was assessed to investigate the psychological antecedent to pro-environmental behaviour; a necessity to mitigate anthropogenic climate change at the individual level. A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed to measure beliefs and behaviour of university students. Correlation was measured between the belief in one’s ability to affect change and pro-environmental behaviour. The hypothesis that nations facing greater climate threat would behave accordingly was tested on the two largest national representatives of the sample, China and Australia. In addition, a naïve Bayesian network, coupled with a self-organising map, was developed to explore correlations between self-efficacy and participants’ socio-demographic features. Results showed that Chinese students are more likely to have higher self-efficacy, while such trend was not noticed for Australians. Similarly, participants with higher educational qualifications, older, and with higher paid jobs also have a higher chance of presenting pro-environmental behaviour. Despite the study limitations, there seems to be evidence suggesting that educational and climate change policies have affected students’ self-efficacy and individual commitment to mitigation.

Science literacy promotes energy conservation behaviors in Filipino youth via climate change knowledge efficacy: Evidence from PISA 2018

“…Viewed differently, students who have lower levels of science literacy are less likely to believe in their capacity to understand and resolve climate change-related issues, which in turn could reduce their motivation to engage in household energy conservation. This finding was consistent with previous studies showing that science literacy promotes climate change knowledge (Jordan et al, 2019) and that the role of sense of efficacy increases people's conservation behaviors (Martinez Gonzalez & Reynolds-Tylus, 2021;Muroi & Bertone, 2019). Furthermore, the present study provided support for the proposition of Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, 1977(Bandura, , 1986 which emphasized that knowledge alone cannot sufficiently activate behavior and that tapping on the learners' sense of efficacy is critical.…”

Dialectical Versus Linear Thinking Shapes People’s Anticipation of Climate Change

“…For instance, the prior knowledge in climate change, which is an important predictor of people’s perception of climate change ( Aksit et al, 2018 ), should be controlled. This concern, however, might be minimal, as previous work found that there were no significant differences in the level of climate change awareness between Westerners and Asians ( Muroi and Bertone, 2019 ). Finally, the current research did not explore whether the difference in perception of future climate change induced by dialectical beliefs would actually lead to some downstream consequences.…”

Multilevel Evidence for the Parent-Adolescent Dyadic Effect of Familiarity With Climate Change on Pro-Environmental Behaviors in 14 Societies: Moderating Effects of Societal Power Distance and Individualism

“…Additionally, the present study suggests that cultivating both parents' and adolescents' familiarity with climate change may result in positive intergenerational transmission of pro-environmental behaviors. Therefore, one valuable implication is that formal and informal education programs on climate change (Muroi & Bertone, 2019) should be conducted for different generations, including parents and adolescents. The content of a climate change educational program may cover various aspects of climate change, such as policy, knowledge, and strategies to adapt (Muroi & Bertone, 2019).…”