Middle and high school students’ conceptions of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies

Abstract

Both scientists and policy-makers emphasize the importance of education for influencing pro-environmental behavior and minimizing the effects of climate change on biological and physical systems. Education has the potential to impact students' system knowledge -their understanding of the variables that affect the climate system -and action knowledge -their understanding of behaviors that can impact the system. Research on climate change education has largely focused on system and action knowledge that address mitigation while overlooking equally necessary adaptive responses. This study used a pre/post-test format to identify aspects of middle and high school students' climate system knowledge and action knowledge of both mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. Results indicate that adolescents currently conflate climate change mitigation strategies with unrelated environmental problems far less than in previous surveys. However, students demonstrated limited understanding of adaptive responses to climate change. After engaging in an instructional unit on climate change, students expressed stronger system and action knowledge, but significant misconceptions remained that conflated mitigation of and adaptation to climate change.

Finnish Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change Mitigation and Its Connection to Hope

“…However, children [18] and adolescents [19] have been shown to lay responsibility for climate change on people other than themselves. In some studies, students have considered international agreements, legislation, and education effective mitigation strategies [17,20]. However, Özdem et al [17] pointed out that more often than not, students think that climate change cannot be mitigated.…”

Serious Gaming for Climate Adaptation—Assessing the Potential and Challenges of a Digital Serious Game for Urban Climate Adaptation

“…Research on climate change education has largely addressed mitigation, with less focus on the equally necessary need for education related to the demand of adaptive actions [4]. Misconceptions exist among many, including adolescents, with regard to the purpose and complementary roles of adaptation and mitigation [4].…”

“…Research on climate change education has largely addressed mitigation, with less focus on the equally necessary need for education related to the demand of adaptive actions [4]. Misconceptions exist among many, including adolescents, with regard to the purpose and complementary roles of adaptation and mitigation [4]. The progress of the interest for education on climate change can be mirrored in the increasing number of climate-related serious games, that more recently also include games with focus on climate adaptation [5][6][7][8][9].…”

Can the history of geology inform geoscience education and public reception of climate change? Lessons from the history of glacial theory

“…Instruction that included critical evaluation of anthropogenic climate change resulted in middle school students' significant shifts in plausibility judgments toward the scientifically accepted model (Lombardi et al, 2013), while development of critical science agency affected urban high school students' climate literacy with a significant increase in conceptual understanding, and a change within the student majority to limit their personal impact (McNeill and Vaughn, 2012). However, although climate change instructional units resulted in middle and high school students' increased systems knowledge understanding of climate change, students still possessed significant misconceptions about mitigation of and adaptive responses to climate change (Bofferding and Kloser, 2015). When climate change instruction was included within an undergraduate writing class, 50% of the students gained or continued an interest in science and/ or climate science, but 10% of students remained uninterested, and 5% lost interest in climate science because of the course (Small Griswold, 2017).…”