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The Attitude of Construction Students toward Sustainability in the Built Environment  

Ahn, Yong-Han (Building Construction, Virginia Tech)
Kwon, Hyuk-Soo (Technology Education, Virginia Tech)
Publication Information
Journal of Engineering Education Research / v.11, no.3, 2008 , pp. 70-77 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study investigates the level of the construction student's familiarity and interest in sustainability, their attitude toward sustainability, and the factors for bringing student's attitude toward sustainability. To accomplish the main objectives, this study employes a survey instrument created and developed by the authors. This is a descriptive and correlation study using responses from construction students at the Building Construction department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Virginia. The results of descriptive statistics and multiple regression using SPSS version 16 present the following findings. Construction students perceive that they have a relatively high level of familiarity with sustainable construction and sustainability. Secondly, student's attitude toward sustainability is changed based on several factors such as sustainable construction courses, a professor who is interested in sustainability, their interest in the construction industry, university initiative, and the level of sustainability for student's learning facilities. Finally, the construction student's attitude toward sustainability can be improved by offering sustainable construction courses in construction programs, having professors who teach and research sustainability, and adopting sustainable initiatives at the university level such as campus recycling and various sustainable programs.
Keywords
Building construction education; Sustainable construction; construction student's attitude toward sustainability;
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