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Abstract: Numerous attempts have been made to measure levels of environmental literacy around the world, only five of which were at the national level. To date ...
DEVELOPMENT OF AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY OF POST-SECONDARY GREEK STUDENTS – PILOT TESTING AND PRELIMINARY RESULTS 1

Kyriazi P. and 1Mavrikaki E. Faculty of Primary Education, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece 1

Abstract: Numerous attempts have been made to measure levels of environmental literacy around the world, only five of which were at the national level. To date, no comprehensive study has been carried out with in Greece. The main focus of our research was to develop an instrument (Greek Environmental Literacy Instrument – GELI) to contribute to evaluating the environmental literacy of post-secondary Greek students. The GELI measures 3 different dimensions (Knowledge, Affect, Behavior) using a written questionnaire with 83 items and 17 demographic variables. The sample of the pilot implementation of the instrument was comprised of 59 students at the onset of their studies in two Greek Universities. The students were given 45 minutes to answer the questions. Statistical analysis was performed in order to verify the validity and reliability of the GELI. The authors investigated the relationships among knowledge, affect and behavior of the students and the influence of background factors on their environmental literacy. Preliminary results of our research are discussed at the end of the study. Key words: environmental literacy, questionnaire, post-secondary students, GELI

INTRODUCTION Disinger and Roth (1992) credit Charles E. Roth with coining the term environmental literacy (EL) in 1968 (Morrone et al. 2001). Although Environmental Education/ Education for Sustainable Development (EE/ESD) experts have discussed EL for more than thirty years – there is not a universal definition for it. According to a recent review study, an environmentally literate person is someone who, both individually and together with others, makes informed decisions concerning the environment, is willing to act on these decisions to improve the well-being of other individuals, societies, and the global environment and participates in civic life (Hollweg et al. 2011). This definition treats cognitive (knowledge, skills), affective and behavioral components as both interactive and developmental in nature and suggests that the main components of EL are Knowledge, Affect, Behavior and Skills (McBride 2001, Hollweg et al. 2011). A survey of the existing literature pointed out that the research studies pertaining to any dimensions of EL are substantial. However, the studies that focused upon the measurement of combined EL components using a written questionnaire, which was developed within a theoretical framework of EL, were much fewer (29 studies). Only five (5) of these studies were nationwide. To date, no comprehensive study measuring EL levels has been carried out in Greece. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument in order to assess the EL level of post-secondary Greek students.

SAMPLE Pilot testing of our research instrument was carried out with 59 students from two Greek universities. We conducted our research in the autumn of 2012. The draft instrument was tested by administering it to first year students (incoming freshmen) at the first semester of the academic year to ensure that the results reflect the respondents’ characteristics that were acquired before their exposure to academic content. Participants were given 45 minutes to answer the questions. We personally distributed 60 questionnaires and received 59 completed. The characteristics of the sample are presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Description of the sample Demographic characteristics Age Gender

Range 18-22, mean= 18.27, SD= 0.69 Men Women

22 (22.0%) 46 (78.0%)

Parents’ residence Urban Rural

24 (40.7%) 35 (59.3%)

Direction of school studies Science

34 (57.6%)

Humanities

23 (39.0%)

Technology

2 (3.4%)

Secondary school degree average

Range 15-20, mean= 18.35, SD= 1.05

METHOD – INSTRUMENT DEVELOPMENT For the purpose of the study we developed the GELI (Greek Environmental Literacy Instrument). A review of the theoretical literature of EE/ESD helped us develop our conceptual framework (McBride 2001, Hollweg et al., 2011 and references therein), and applied studies provided the basis on which we constructed the GELI (Table 2). The GELI is comprised of three EL components: (1) Knowledge, (2) Affect and (3) Environmentally Responsible Behavior, along with questions focusing on gathering data about students’ demographic profile. The Knowledge questionnaire consists of multiple choice items, while Affect and Behavior were measured using five-point Likert-type scales.

Table 2 Studies along with the main components of each instrument and the country in which it was implemented. No

Instr.

Country

Study

Knowledge

Affect

Behavior

1

WELI

United States (Wisconsin)

Champeau et al. 1994







2

(ELI)*

United States (Ohio)

Morrone et al. 2001





3

ELIKC

Korean

Chu et al. 2007







4

(ELI)*

Israel

Nagev et al. 2008







5

(ELI)*

Israel

Yavetz et al. 2009







6

ELQ

Turkey

Tuncer et al. 2009





7

MSELS

United States

McBeth & Volk 2010









8

ESELI

Turkey

Erdogan & Ok 2011









Note.* = (ELI): Environmental Literacy Instrument –no specific name was given by authors

Initially we created an item pool including items drawn from instruments developed and validated in previous studies (245 items) along with items that the researchers of the present study developed (50 items) in order to make the instrument more appropriate for the Greek population. The items in the pool were sorted according to the components and sub-components of EL (Erdogan & Ok, 2011). Then, the authors and two in-service teachers, experts in EE/ESD, were asked to check the face validity of the instrument. Following their observations 155 items were gradually excluded. Then, the remaining items (140) were subjected to exploratory factor analysis using the Principal Components Analysis method. Thus, 29 items from the part ‘AFFECT’ and 14 items from the part ‘BEHAVIOR’ were also excluded due to their low loading score (