Twelfth Grade Student Knowledge and Attitudes toward the Environment in the Dominican Republic: An Assessment

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to assess the environmental knowledge and attitudes of Dominican students in the twelfth year of school who had received no exposure to environmental education. For this purpose, a stratified random sample of twenty-three secondary schools was selected. A sixty-item test was given to approximately thirty students randomly selected from each of the schools. The students' score averages in the two sections (knowledge and attitudes) were 51 percent and 55 percent, respectively. Of the variables included, only sex of the students produced a significant difference, with males outscoring females. Poverty and deforestation were ranked as the most critical environmental problems.