Bulgarian Journal of Science and Education Policy (Dec 2011)
The Environmental Concern of Nine-Grade Students from a Secondary Professional School
Abstract
The study analyzed the historical development of worldviews on human-environment interrelationships, different environmental attitude measuring instruments and the properties of the New Ecological Paradigm scale (NEPs). Based on the analysis, the NEP scale was considered a good and reliable attitude-measuring instrument and was employed for assessing environmental concern of students in a vocational school. A self-administered survey questionnaire was used to collect the necessary data. On the whole, students demonstrated positive attitude to the environment. They showed strong attitudes on the possibility of ecocrisis and weak attitudes on limits to population growth, better outlined tendency to ecocentrism than to anthropocentrism, and a good understanding of the delicate nature of the ecological balance. Their trust in technological advancement and in human intellectual abilities to solve ecological problems was well expressed. A significant part of them (about one fifth) demonstrated uncertainty acting on the save side. The mean scores (4.18 for the test and 4.15 for the re-test) for NEP significantly predominated over the mean scores (3.23 for the test and 3.20 for the retest) for DSP. Results will be employed in curricula and teaching strategies improvement.
