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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
The Impact of Higher Education on Environmental Risk Perceptions
Author(s)
Eren Durmuş-Özdemir, Sevinç Şener
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DOI:10.17265/1537-1514/2016.09.005
Affiliation(s)
Akdeniz University, Antalya, Turkey
ABSTRACT
The
purpose of the present study is to explain if there is any difference in the
environmental risk perceptions of university students and the association of
such differences, if any, with environmental education. Nowadays, the
importance of education in understanding the risks that threaten the
environment and suggesting solutions for such risks and raising awareness on environmental
matters has become an important research question. It is known that higher
education is the level of education where individuals are able to attain
environmental awareness. Hence, it is necessary to investigate the university
students’ environment risk perceptions related to environment education. The
present study is a relational study with a descriptive pattern aimed to
describe the relationship between university students’ environment risk
perceptions and environment education. The “Environmental Risk Perceptions”
questionnaire was the basic data collection tool of this study. The
questionnaire was tested in a pilot study with 250 university students and it
was revised according to the feedback obtained from these students. The revised
version of the questionnaire was used in the field study which was conducted
through face-to-face interviews with 570 university students actively attending
in Vocational College of Technical Sciences of Akdeniz University in Turkey
from January 2015 to May 2016. The obtained data from the questionnaires are
analyzed through the SPSS statistical package program. The current study found
that a significant positive relationship was found between the students’
environment education and their environmental risk perceptions. Students
responding to the study stated that taking at least 1 course on environment
during their university education had an impact on all aspects of their
environmental risk perception. The great majority of students expressed that
university education had improved their sensitivity towards environmental
matters and they knew about the prominent non-governmental organizations active
in the field of environment and became members to such organizations owing to
their education. The results of the present study indicate that the formal
education and non-formal learning processes offered at vocational colleges with
respect to matters concerning the environment have an impact upon students. In
fact, the present study gives way to the opinion that the addition of courses
on environmental matters to all programmers creates a difference in the
environmental risk perceptions of students.
KEYWORDS
environmental risk, environmental education, university
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