Study of vegetation's impact and green schools on students' and teachers' knowledge, attitudes and behaviours on environment in Zhengzhou City in Mainland China /

Open in iSearch

Student Theses

2022

Wei, Ran

Hong Kong : The Education University of Hong Kong

Thesis

Based on the development wave of green school movements worldwide, since 2000, Mainland China has vigorously developed green school projects with environmental education as its development policy. Since 2018, following the evolution of green school projects in mainland China, the capital city Zhengzhou of Henan Province has taken the lead in implementing the green school project locally with the evolution of green school projects in mainland China as the guiding background. Therefore, the present study is based on the green school project context to study the implementation of the project in Zhengzhou City of Henan Province in mainland China. The present study examined the vital selection criteria for the green school project in Zhengzhou City (the vegetation coverage area of the campus needs to reach 37% and above), by comparing the 5th and 6th Grade students' perceptions on the impact of vegetation in different types of schools, and explored the implementation of the green school project by comparing the environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviours regarding the environmental literacy of teachers and 5th and 6th Grade students, and in green and non-green schools in the capital city of Zhengzhou, Henan Province in mainland China. Both quantitative research and qualitative research were used into the study to examine students' and teachers' performance. The findings illustrated that students who study in green schools with adequate vegetation coverage have higher perceptions (p < 0.001) on the impact of vegetation on reducing psychological pressure, improving studying awareness, and environmental awareness. Meanwhile, it can be observed that these three components regarding environmental literacy of students and teachers in green schools were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than in non-green schools. One of the more significant findings to emerge from this study is that developing the green school project in Zhengzhou City is practical and conducive to teachers and students. Furthermore, the current study also compared the environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitude, and pro-environmental behaviours of teachers and 5th and 6th Grade students in different school types. Results revealed no significant differences in these three above-mentioned components regarding environmental literacy (p >0.05) in teachers and 5th-6th Grade students. Among the four non-green schools, teachers and students in School D (one non-green school planned to apply to be the municipal-level green school) preparing to apply for municipal-level green schools showed the most positive performance in these three above-mentioned components. In addition, this study conducted a linear correlation analysis (N = 485) on green and non-green school students' environmental knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes (r = 0.163, p < 0.01), environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviours (r = 0.184, p < 0.01), or pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours (r = 0.072, p > 0.05). A significant and positive linear correlation between students' environmental knowledge, pro-environmental attitudes, and pro-environmental behaviours could be observed in the results. In contrast, it could be discovered that there was no linear correlation between environmental knowledge and pro-environmental attitudes, environmental knowledge and pro-environmental behaviours, or environmental attitudes and environmental behaviours among teachers in green and non-green schools (N =48). However, the relevance of the interview survey is clearly supported by the current findings that most of the teachers argued that environmental knowledge could affect their pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviours. Therefore, the current study also proposes that, according to the analysis findings of the quantitative research, it can be concluded that teachers' performance is more in line with the requirements for the education for sustainable development (ESD). In this regard, the current study suggested that the green school project should be integrated into the development of ESD in the future. Results from the present study revealed that the green school project in Zhengzhou City is feasible and provided implications for future project development

LG51.H43 Dr 2022eb Weir

https://educoll.lib.eduhk.hk/records/YeDmx1nd