The Level of Environmental Literacy for the Undergraduate Students at the University of Bahrain

Abstract

Abstract : This study is about the level of environmental literacy for the undergraduate students at the University of Bahrain which is the leading university in Bahrain. A survey based on the Wisconsin environmental education framework was constructed to be used as the main instrument for this study. The survey composed of three sections each measuring different aspects of the environmental literacy. The first section measures the different aspects of attitudes of the environmental literacy while the second measures the different aspects of environmental responsible behavior and the third measures the different aspects of the environmental literacy knowledge. A fourth part which could be called the environmental literacy index was established by adding up the three parts. The survey was sent to a number of distinguished specialists in the field of the environment and its sciences to establish the validity of the instrument. Where appropriate, their opinions were taken into considerations. A pilot study has been conducted on a group similar to that of the sample population to establish the reliability of the three parts of the survey. The group consisted of 38 students and by using Cronbach's alpha to establish the internal consistency; the following results were obtained: The attitude section alpha coefficient was 0.84, the behavior section alpha coefficient was 0.81; and the knowledge section alpha coefficient was 0.73. These results showed that the instrument is reliable. The study population was studied and the reliable sample size was determined using smith's formula. The reliable sample size was 391 and the sample size on which the study has been conducted was 402. A representative sample was selected from the undergraduate students of the University of Bahrain and the survey was administered. After collecting the questionnaires, the data were processed using the SPSS for windows version 12.01. The following results were obtained: the students obtained a mean of 34.93 (58.22%) on the attitudes scale, 23.86 (39.76 %) on the behavior scale, 20.31 (33.85%) on the knowledge scale and 79.09 (43.94%) on the environmental literacy index. The study also found that there was a strong correlation between the knowledge and the attitudes. Using Pearson correlation coefficient, the correlation between the knowledge and the attitudes was 0. 421. The correlation between the attitudes and behavior was at 0. 312 which can be considered a moderate correlation in social sciences. The correlation between the knowledge and the behavior was weak at 0.021. In addition the study compared the performance of the different subpopulations at the university and found the following results: There was no significant difference between the performance of undergraduate students on the attitudes, knowledge and environmental literacy index according to the gender variable. However there was significant difference between males and females in favor of males on the general behavior scale. In addition the study found no significant difference between the performance of the undergraduate students on the all four scales of the environmental literacy according to age and class standing.