Cultivating environmentally responsible citizens in a local university in Hong Kong - evaluating the cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral outcomes

Abstract

This study examined individual and institutional factors impacting the outcomes of sustainability education in a local university in Hong Kong. Adopting a pre- and post-test design, we found students scored 10.25%, 2.69%, and 0.68% higher on environmental knowledge (p = 0.000), environmental dispositions (p = 0.027), and daily conservation behaviours (p = 0.316), respectively after taking the general education course, “Energy: Today and Tomorrow” at City University of Hong Kong. Advancement in environmental knowledge, stronger environmental dispositions, and pro-environmental behaviours were inter-related and the former was positively associated with the latter. Furthermore, outcomes of environmental education were contingent upon a subject’s learning strategy and socioeconomic status. Policy implications for creating enabling conditions to maximize the benefits of environmental education and pursue Hong Kong’s long term sustainability were also discussed.

Keywords:

• Environmental education
• impact evaluation
• experimental test
• university students
• Hong Kong

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Each correct choice was coded as 1 and 0 otherwise. For questions with multiple correct choices, we also coded not-selecting a wrong choice as 1 and 0 otherwise.

2 Seeking information or advice from other people can be costly. For example, with some people you may not feel comfortable revealing your own lack of knowledge on a given topic. Alternatively, people you ask for information may make you feel excessively indebted to them. In light of such interpersonal risks and obligations, please indicate the extent to which you feel that seeking information or advice from your team members is costly.

Additional information

Funding

The authors thank Philip Ivanhoe and the three anonymous reviewers for the helpful comments. Of course, the usual disclaimer applies. The work was supported by the City University of Hong Kong under Campus Sustainability Fund (CSF 6986000) and the Teaching Development Grant (TDG 6000388, 6000553 and 6000670).