Senior secondary Indian students' views about global warming, and their implications for education

Abstract

For individuals to make informed lifestyle choices that may help to reduce global warming, they need some understanding of this phenomenon and the factors that contribute to it. However, there is a 'gap' between knowledge about global warming and willingness to take personal action. So, although education may be effective in enhancing student knowledge, the extent to which that knowledge leads to action is unclear. In order to explore this a 44-item questionnaire was designed to determine senior secondary students' views about how useful various specific actions in reducing global warming might be, and their willingness to undertake these various actions. The findings gave insight into the extent to which these two parameters might be linked. The instrument was administered to students in Grade 12 (n=268) from four large schools in New Delhi, India. The findings indicated that this cohort of Indian students exhibited high levels of concern about global warming and a willingness to act to reduce it. These findings are tentatively compared with those younger students (Grade 6-10) within the same schools, and with those from two similar survey studies conducted in Western contexts (Spain and Australia). Implications for the role of environmental education in behaviour change are discussed.