Pro-climate behaviour and the influence of learning sources on it in Chinese adolescents

Abstract

As human-induced climate change rapidly increases, information about climate change permeates each aspect of society. This study examines how learning sources pertaining to climate change influence self-reported pro-climate behaviour in adolescents. Cross-tabulation method, combined with correspondence analysis, has been conducted on data obtained from 657 high-school students in Shanghai. It is found that different learning sources have different influences on pro-climate behaviours. Activity-based learning tends to be more conductive to pro-climate behaviour than other sources, especially media, which is the most reported source in relation to climate change in this study and previous studies. Moreover, certain life experience and behaviour itself may be predictors of pro-climate behaviour. The results offer suggestions on improving practices and research of climate change education.

Keywords:

• Activity-based learning
• climate change education
• learning source
• life experience
• pro-climate behaviour

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on this manuscript; to express our deep appreciation to the participant students, teachers and Mr. Li Shudong, Mr. Dai Jian for their support on this survey. Finally, special thanks go out to the Sino-Japan Friendship Centre for Environmental Protection, and the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.