Assessment of Middle School Student's Environmental Literacy and Analysis of Predictors for It

중학생의 환경소양 평가 및 환경소양에 영향을 주는 요인 탐색

The purpose of this study was to investigate middle school student's environmental literacy level and variables that affect their environmental literacy. Of the students, 987 in 7th grade from big cities, medium sized cities and mountain areas participated in this study, and their environmental literacy was measured through 88 questions (27 items for knowledge, 27 items for attitude, 25 items for behavior, 9 items for skill) with 14 demographic variables. Forty-five minutes were given to answer the questions. Statistical analysis was conducted on each of the categories(knowledge, attitude, behavior, skill) that make up environmental literacy and factor analysis was also conducted to investigate variables that affect environmental literacy. Results indicated that the correlation between attitude and behavior is the strongest. Also, it was found that a demographic variable might affect one, two, or sometimes all categories of the environmental literacy. Especially students' perceptions, knowledge and attitude of science positively affect all categories of environmental literacy.