Investigating Climate Change Understandings of Urban Middle-Level Students

Bodzin, Alec M.; Anastasio, David J.; Sahagian, Dork; Peffer, Tamara; Dempsey, Christopher M.; Steelman, Roxann

doi:10.5408/13-042.1

Cited by 26 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…The most common alternative conceptions were the destruction of the ozone layer as a prerequisite for the emergence of climate change and the link between this environmental problem and the release of water vapour from the melting icecaps. (Bodzin et al 2014;Fernández et al 2011;Fisher 1998). Kilinç et al (2008) attributed the low proportion of students who identified tropospheric ozone as a greenhouse gas to students' difficulty in differentiating between stratospheric and tropospheric ozone, where this gas has always been considered beneficial thanks to the fact that it offers protection from ultraviolet radiation.…”

Section: Previous Studies On Alternative Ideas and Mental Models On Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-018-9703-1 general and climate change in particular (Papadimitriou 2004). For example, Bodzin et al (2014) noted that most of the students were able to cite several personal and social actions to reduce carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere, including changing transport habits, reducing electricity consumption, using renewable energy sources or planting trees.…”

Section: Previous Studies On Alternative Ideas and Mental Models On Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Investigation of Secondary Students’ Mental Models of Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect

Varela

Gayoso

2018

Res Sci Educ

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There are several studies dealing with students' conceptions on climate change, but most of them refer to understanding before instruction. In contrast, this study investigates students' conceptions and describes the levels of sophistication of their mental models on climate change and the greenhouse effect. The participants were 40 students of secondary education (Grade 7) in Spain. As a method of data collection, a questionnaire with open-ended questions focused on the mechanism, causes and actions that could be useful in reducing climate change was designed. Seventh grade students completed the same questionnaire before and after instruction. The students' conceptions and mental models were identified by an inductive and iterative analysis of the participants' explanations. With regard to the students' conceptions, the results show that they usually link climate change to an increase in temperature, and they tend to mention, even after instruction, generic actions to mitigate climate change, such as not polluting. With regard to the students' mental model, the results show an evolution of models with little consistency and coherence, such as the models on Level 1, towards higher levels of sophistication. The paper concludes with the educational implications proposed for solving learning difficulties regarding the greenhouse effect and climate change.

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Section: Previous Studies On Alternative Ideas and Mental Models On Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Previous Studies On Alternative Ideas and Mental Models On Cmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Investigation of Secondary Students’ Mental Models of Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect

Varela

Gayoso

2018

Res Sci Educ

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“…Still, significant number of students (35-40%) erroneously determine that it can be easily stopped. This is an indication of students" knowledge and awareness insufficiency on the historical background as well as the future trends of climate [5] . Scientific observations indicate that global climate has been constantly changing in the past, present, and in the future [17] .…”

Section: Profile Of the Respondentsmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…Despite of their negative view on climate change, many claimed that it is their desire to make changes in their life to reduce the impacts of climate change. This implicates that the respondents are aware that they too can engage to minimize the anthropogenic CO 2 emissions [5] . The result also showed that the respondents are very attentive about climate change news.…”

Section: Students' Affective Engagement On Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ Climate Change Literacy: Implication for Climate Change Education in Public Secondary Schools in Kabacan, North Cotabato

2017

Multi-Disciplinary Manila (Philippines) Conferences Jan. 26-27, 2017 Cebu (Philippines)

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This study investigated the climate change literacy of 219 Grade 10 students in public secondary schools in Kabacan, North Cotabato. This research utilized an adapted questionnaire which measures the cognitive, affective and behavioral engagement on climate change. The cognitive domain used a 5-point scale which allowed the researcher to assess the students" level of certainty in their knowledge. Results revealed that students have reasonable knowledge but most of the statements were answered with low level of certainty on the basic concept, causes, effects and mitigation. Moreover, most students lack thorough knowledge on the causes of climate change. Also, several misconceptions on the essential principles were revealed (e.g. El Niño as part of climate change; greenhouse gases as air pollutants; greenhouse effect as an environmental problem; attribution of climate change to ozone hole; confusion on the definition of weather and climate and etc.). The respondents agreed that climate change influences them in many ways and showed concern on its severe effects. However, considerable number of students negatively viewed climate change that people"s action is too late to alleviate the problem. Significant difference was also found on their cognitive engagement when they are grouped according to gender.

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“…Educating undergraduate students about climate change is critical to ensure that these students are able to make effective decisions in both the political and social arena. The majority of the research on knowledge, alternative conceptions, and perceptions about climate change targets primary and secondary students (Andersson & Wallin, ; Bodzin et al, ; Boyes, Skamp & Stanisstreet, ; McNeal, Libarkin, et al, ; Porter, Weaver & Raptis, ; Shepardson, Niyogi, Choi, & Charusombat, ; Shepardson et al, ), in‐service teachers (Boon, ; Lenzen & Murray, ; Sullivan et al, ; Wise, ), as well as the general public (Hamilton, ; Kahan et al, ; Maibach, Roser‐Renouf, & Leiserowitz, ; McCright & Dunlap, ; Wood & Vedlitz, ). However, fewer studies exist on college students' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about climate change (Harris & Gold, ; McNeal, Spry, Mitra, & Tipton, ; Wachholz, Artz & Chene, ).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of instruction, prior knowledge, and values on climate change risk perception among undergraduates

et al. 2017

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We evaluated influences on the climate change risk perceptions of undergraduate students in an introductory Earth Science course. For this sample, domain‐specific content knowledge about climate change was a significant predictor of students' risk perception of climate change while cultural worldviews (individualism, hierarchy) and political orientation were not. These results contrast with previous studies highlighting worldviews as a dominant influence on risk perception. At the beginning of the semester, students' climate change content knowledge was relatively low, with average scores on a 21‐item test less than 50%. Post instruction results indicated that students learned climate change science during the course, and their perceptions of risks associated with climate change increased. Unlike most prior research evaluating links between climate change knowledge and risk perception, our measure of content knowledge was a validated assessment specific to climate change. Use of this specific climate knowledge test may be one reason that we detected a relationship between climate knowledge and risk perception whereas most of the previous research has not. Another—possibly complementary—explanation may be a generational shift between our study sample and prior samples. Undergraduates today, having grown up with more exposure to climate change in schools and the media than previous generations, may be diverging from average adults in that learning climate science appears to also increase their perceptions of the risks climate change poses. Undergraduate courses with embedded climate‐related activities present an opportunity to both increase climate science knowledge and risk perceptions of future decision makers.

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Investigating Climate Change Understandings of Urban Middle-Level Students

Cited by 26 publications

References 18 publications

An Investigation of Secondary Students’ Mental Models of Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect

An Investigation of Secondary Students’ Mental Models of Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect

Students’ Climate Change Literacy: Implication for Climate Change Education in Public Secondary Schools in Kabacan, North Cotabato

The influence of instruction, prior knowledge, and values on climate change risk perception among undergraduates

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