Students' Understanding of Climate Change: Insights for Scientists and Educators

Abstract

Teachers and meteorologists are among the most respected purveyors of scientific information to the public. As such, they can play an influential role in educating the public about basic atmosphere-related phenomena. To better fulfill this educational role, it is necessary to (i) identify and (ii) correct people's major misconceptions about climatic and atmospheric issues, including global climate change. This paper reports the results of a survey of high school students' knowledge and attitudes about climate change.The authors use open-ended survey questions to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the range of "mistakes" that are made. The results show misconceptions including inflated estimates of temperature change, confusion between ozone depletion and global warming, the perception of warmer weather and a belief that all environmentally harmful acts cause climate change. Also discussed is the origin of these mistakes from the perspective of current social scientific literature. It is suggested that these misconceptions arise from low levels of information, reliance on the televised news media, use of judgmental heuristics, confusion between weather and climate, and "fuzzy environmentalism," wherein students perceive disparate environmental harms as significantly interrelated. The study also reveals that students have a very high level of trust in scientists and teachers. This suggests a role for scientists and educators through which they help correct misconceptions about climate change and ensure that people adopt effective environmentally protective measures.

Development of Environmental Health Competencies through Compulsory Education. A Polyhedral Approach Based on the SDGs

“…In relation to situations of excessive consumption, students show poorer levels of knowledge and attitudes than skills, which could indicate the difficulty in modifying their behaviour. Studies developed more than 20 years ago highlighted in the students the persistence of misconceptions, confusion related to the ozone layer and global warming, and the belief that all acts harmful to the environment cause climate change [56].…”

Student Cognition in the Context of a Climate System: Global Warming and Greenhouse Effect

“…The human activities are expected to increase to the natural greenhouse effect, rising global warming. The primary effects of human actions result from industries/factories pollution and fossil fuel usage, which have begun to a build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere, and deforestation, which has emerged in the loss of carbon sinks that separate carbon naturally (Rajeev Gowda et al, 1997). People must begin to realize and be awakened to understand the impact of global warming on environmental problems, both locally and globally.…”

“…Schools can help students find out about environmental problems, consequences, and what types of actions must be taken to overcome (Shepardson, Niyogi, Choi, & Charusombat, 2009). Rajeev Gowda et al (1997) stated that the school was required to deal with global warming and climate change and to familiarize the learner about the importance of this problem. One effort to express the effect of climate change is taught to students.…”

Unpacking the connections between 8th graders' climate literacy and epistemic cognition

“…Two instruments were used in this study: one for climate literacy, and one for epistemic cognition. To measure students' climate literacy, a 20-item Likert-type instrument was constructed (Quarderer & Fulmer, 2019;Table 2, top) to include items that assess conceptions about climate change commonly held by adolescents that have been identified in the climate science education literature (Rajeev-Gowda et al, 1997;Shepardson et al, 2011) and in previously developed survey tools intended to measure conceptual understanding about climate change (Christensen & Knezek, 2015;Jarrett & Takacs, 2020). Two practicing climate and atmospheric scientists were consulted for their expertise to help achieve content validity.…”

“…Prior studies have shown that young learners often tend to rely on unproblematic ideas about the nature of science knowledge (Carey et al, 1989;Carey & Smith, 1993;Smith et al, 2000), seeing science as a set of facts to be memorized (Ryan & Aikenhead, 1992), and viewing the role of scientists as searching for an objective truth through a singular, prescriptive scientific method (Lederman, 1992). As it relates to the conceptual understanding of climate change held by school-age children, findings suggest that students tend to conflate the phenomena that lead to climate change with the depletion of Earth's ozone layer (Rajeev-Gowda et al, 1997;Rye & Rubba, 1998), have incomplete conceptions of the mechanisms behind the greenhouse effect (Shepardson et al, 2011;Varela et al, 2020;Visintainer & Linn, 2015), and are often unsure when it comes to the possible actions one could take to combat climate change (Francis et al, 1993). Within the context of learning about climate change, researchers have been able to demonstrate that the epistemic cognitive frameworks that underpin what students bring to those experiences can have an influence on how they interpret multiple, conflicting texts related to climate change Muis et al, 2015), their level of concern about the possible effects of climate change (Holthuis et al, 2014), their willingness to accept the role that humans play within the changing climate system (Lombardi et al, 2016;Stevenson et al, 2014), and their tendency to take action in response to changes in Earth's climate (Busch et al, 2019b;.…”