An Analysis of the Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes of Unıversity Students

Abstract

This research aims to analyze the environmental knowledge and attitudes of university students. For the purpose of data collection, a survey was conducted on 162 students from the 3 rd and the 4 th grade studying in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences Education at the Industrial Arts Education Faculty, Gazi University. For the conduct of the research, descriptive statistics (such as arithmetic mean, standard deviation etc.), the t test and variance analysis were used for the comparison of the groups; and correlation and regression analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) were used for determining the relations between quantitative variables. According to the results, it was observed that the environmental knowledge level of the students is higher than their environmental attitude level. However, a significant relationship was observed between the environmental knowledge of the university students and their attitudes regarding this knowledge. Moreover, significant relationships were determined between the general environmental knowledge and the attitude levels of the students and their individual characteristics other than their ages (such as class, gender, the education level of the father, the education level of the mother, levels of income, and whether they have acquired any environmental education prior to the university) (p<0.05). According to the averages, it was determined that the environmental knowledge and attitude levels of the 4 th grade students, females and of the students having acquired environmental education prior to university are higher than those of the 3 rd grade students, males, and of the students who had not acquired environmental education prior to university.