Korean Year 3 Children’s Environmental Literacy: A prerequisite for a Korean environmental education curriculum

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate Korean children’s environmental literacy levels and the variables that affect their environmental literacy. An instrument, the Environment Literacy Instrument for Korean Children (ELIKC), was developed that measures four different dimensions (knowledge, attitude, behaviour, and skills) using 69 items and 13 demographic variables. The ELIKC was administered to 969 Year 3 students from large cities, medium‐sized cities, and rural areas. The students were given 80 min to answer the questions. Statistical analysis was performed on each of the scales that make up the ELIKC and a multivariate analysis of variance was performed to identify the variables that affect environmental literacy. Results indicate that the correlation between attitude and behaviour is the strongest while that between knowledge and behaviour is the weakest. Also, it was found that gender, parents’ school background, and the source from where students obtain environmental information affect all categories of environmental literacy.

Keywords:

• Environmental Education
• Environmental Literacy
• Korea

Acknowledgement

For helpful comments in preparing and revising this paper, the first author thanks Dr A. L. Chandrasegaran at the Science and Mathematics Education Centre, Curtin University of Technology, where she was a Post‐Doctoral Research Fellow in 2005–2007.