Research On Theory And Measurement Of Environmental Literacy

The concept "environmental literacy" was put forward during the worldwide environment movement in 1960s. Due to so many realms the concept concerned, there was no common accepted definition about it. On summarizing relevant expressions home and aboard, this dissertation proposes the definition and structure of environmental literacy. We consider that environmental literacy is the syntheses of environmental knowledge, environmental awareness and environmental behavior that human being learned. Although the concept was appeared lately, Human being's environmental literacy came into being at the moment our ancestor evolved out from other species, and it developed in pace with human being's understanding about nature.Environmental literacy measurement was developed in the environmental movement. The main measurement factors include environmental knowledge, environmental attitude and environmental behavior. There was no classic measurement scale about environmental knowledge and environmental behavior, by comparison, environmental attitude measurement was well developed, and the most famous scale is the New Environmental Paradigm scale, which was developed by Riley Dulap & Kent Van Liere in 1978, since then the scale has been applied all over the world, and has been developed several editions. Over past nearly 30 years, the meanings of the New Environmental Paradigm have greatly changed. Former ecological environment conservation has expanded to the whole society system's sustainable development, especially the future generations' living space. Former absolute dependence on science and technology has become conditional acceptance. Former anthropocentrism has become somewhat nature worship.On summarizing the main environmental literacy measurement researches home and abroad, this dissertation illustrates the shortage of environmental literacy measurement in China.The standardization of research work and the diversity of survey methods in western environmental literacy measurement are worthwhile for us to learn.On the basis of theory study, according to the 21 Century Agenda of China and the classic environmental education courses, refer to measurement scales home and abroad, we develop a suit of environmental literacy measurement scale that have been testified has acceptable validity and creditability. Then we do some positive research on normal university students' environmental literacy. We select three normal universities in Jiangsu province and Shandong province, survey more than 3000 undergraduates. The main conclusion could be summarized as follow: Generally speaking, the undergraduates' environmental literacy is high, but their knowledge structure shows fractional, their environmental attitude is somewhat superficial, and their environmental behavior expresses inertia. There exist significant inter-specialty disparity on the undergraduates' environmental literacy, but there is no significant inter-university disparity. There exist significant correlations among knowledge, attitude and behavior. Compare to pupils and middle school students, family's influence become weaker to the undergraduates on their environmental literacy. Most undergraduates can understand the education's function in solving environmental problems, their enthusiasm to take in environmental education is high, and their environmental literacy is relevant with their enthusiasm. Environmental curricula have positive effect in improving undergraduates' environmental literacy, but curricula have not become the main resource of undergraduates' environmental knowledge.