Students’ and Student Teachers’ Environmental knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviour in Singapore

The main objective of the study was to assess the environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of students and pre-service student teachers in Singapore. The data was analysed to find out if there are significant differences between the dependent variables (environmental knowledge, attitudes and behaviour) and the independent variables (educational level, gender, residential type and ethnicity). A total of of 55 secondary three students in one secondary school and 91 student teachers in the National Institute of Education (Bachelor of Arts Programme, BA= 61, Post Graduate Diploma in Education Programme, PGDE = 30). The mean environmental knowledge score for secondary three was the lowest at 58.85% (SD = 3.78). For the BA and PGDE student teachers, the average knowledge scores were 78.7% (SD = 2.49) and 81.30% (SD = 1.99) respectively. It was found that the secondary three students had significantly lower mean score for knowledge than BA and PGDE student teachers. No significant differences were found for environmental knowledge scores for the different gender, ethnicity and residential type. 

The mean environmental attitude score for secondary three was 77.95% (SD = 10.13), for BA was 79.8% (SD = 9.20) and PDGE was 76.30% (SD = 8.36). However, no significant differences in environmental attitude score were found for the different education level, gender, ethnicity and residential type. The mean environmental behaviour score for secondary three was 71.32% (SD = 4.87), for BA was 71.85% (SD = 5.13) and PDGE was 76.98% (SD = 4.48). The PGDE student teachers had significantly higher mean score for behaviour than the secondary three students and BA student teachers. Finally, a significant positive correlation was found between environmental knowledge and behaviour.