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

Abstract

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.