Sustainability Literacy: Assessment of Knowingness, Attitude and Behavior Regarding Sustainable Development among Students in China

Abstract

Education is critical to achieving the world’s sustainable development (SD). Assessment or measurement is a means to help an education system to accelerate integrating SD content. To have a perception of the gap in relation to the SD action goals, a basic understanding of current students’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviors (KAB) needs to be established. The study applied a survey to assess Chinses students’ knowingness, attitude and behavior regarding SD. Data were collected from students from all parts of China via an online survey tool, which consists of 887 primary-school students and 1661 secondary-school students. The results indicate a high level of KAB regarding SD among Chinese students, while this sustainability literacy is mainly embodied in the environmental dimension. In general, the results showed the better KAB of primary-school students than secondary-school students, while there was almost no difference between male and female students. Moreover, knowingness and attitude have significant and positive correlations with behaviors. These results constitute a general sketch of Chinese students’ sustainable knowledge, attitudes and behavior, which could be employed to monitor China’s efforts on education for sustainable development and also to foster curriculum developments and innovations in China.

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