Exploring the Use of the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) to Monitor the Development of Students’ Ecological Worldviews

Abstract

Higher education institutions are interested in the impact that they and concurrent life experiences may have on students’ sustainability attitudes, but they lack formal processes to monitor changes. We used the NEP to monitor changes in students’ ecological worldviews. We were interested in what variation there would be in a multidisciplinary group, if the NEP could detect changes in students’ ecological worldviews over a limited time period, and to learn more about the NEP and its use. We conclude that the NEP is a valuable research instrument for this study and that monitoring students’ attitudes is a worthwhile precursor to debating the issues institutionally.

Keywords:

• affective learning
• environmental attitudes
• monitoring change
• Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale
• students’ ecological worldviews