A Survey of Environmental Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour of Students in Singapore

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to gather baseline data on the level of environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of secondary and junior college students in Singapore. For this purpose, an instrument of 55 items was designed and tested on a sample of 1256 secondary three (Grade 9) and junior college year one (Grade 11) students. The students' mean environmental knowledge score was 70.9%. The mean correct response rates for the environmental fact, concept and generalisation subtests were 68.0%, 68.8% and 78.0% respectively. The mean environmental attitude and behaviour scores were 66.0% and 70.5% respectively. When investigating the students' main source of environmental information, it was found that the students gained most of their environmental knowledge from out-of-school sources rather than from general education at school. The majority of the students (53.7%) indicated that they gathered most of their environmental information from the printed media (newspapers and magazines) and electronic media (radio and television). Only 30.7% of the students indicated that general education at school was their main source of environmental information.