Study to assess level of environmental literacy of undergraduate university students
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Date
2017
Authors
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Publisher
University of Management and Technology Lahore
Abstract
This research is aiming at the effective demarcation of the extent of environmental literacy level pertaining to environmental literacy in public as well as private universities residing in the premises of city Lahore. Pakistan is a worstile country where numerous challenges contribute up to great extent in the complexity of global warming, pollution, natural resources and energy. The scope of this study is to examine university learners’ environmental knowledge, understanding regarding four main environmental challenges (pollution, global warming, energy and natural resources) and their approach to sustainable life style regarding reuse, recycling, conservation and consumption as well as capturing significant difference between the environmental literacy level of learners with respect to their demographics (gender, age, source of information, learners from public and private universities ).
This study was descriptive in nature. Quantitative research design was adopted and Survey was conducted for sample representation. Two stage sampling was conducted. At first stage 2 public and 2 private universities were selected by adopting convenient sampling. At stage two, 400 under graduate learners were selected no randomly. Self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. This questionnaire encapsulates three effective dimensions of environmental literacy (i.e., knowledge test, understanding and sustainable life style). In order to validate the instrument it has been reviewed and finalized by concerned experts. With regard to the reliability of the questionnaire the most famous approach of Coronbach’s Alpha was analyzed that happened to be .677 and .803 for understanding and sustainability in quantitative measures. Data analyses was conducted by using statistical analytical software (SPSS). In order to calculate statistical values pertaining to percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test and ANOVA have been demonstrated. Findings reveals that there was no significance difference between male and female university learner’s levels of EL as well as public and private university learners level of environmental literacy. In addition to this it has been revealed that there was significance difference between university students’ level of environmental literacy by age and no significance difference was found in student’s level of environmental literacy by their environmental source of information. On the whole this study summarizes that undergraduate university students exhibited high level of environmental literacy. Week and moderate correlation was found among three dimensions (knowledge, understanding, and sustainable life style) of environmental literacy. Under the preview of this research in the area of environmental literacy a variety of environmental subjects and programs should be introduced at university level to enhance and diversify the environmental literacy level of our future leaders(teachers, researcher, organizational heads).
Description
Supervised by: Dr. Fariha Gul
Keywords
Environmental literacy, Environmental literacy, M.Phil Thesis