Perceptions of Students on Environmental Challenge Issues

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate student’s perception of environmental challenge issues and its implication for science education.

A standardized ROSE (Relevance of Science Education) survey questionnaire related to environment on 4-Point Likert-type scale was administered to 500 form three students of Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolitan Authority (S.T.M.A) Senior High Schools. The data were subjected to descriptive statistical analyses and an independent sample 2-tailed t-test was used to explore the statistical significance at p ? 0.05.  The findings revealed that although young people were overwhelmingly optimistic about the future, environmental issues are clearly of concern to them.             The results also revealed that students in S.T.M.A. believed that they had a role to play in protecting the environment. The major findings of the study were that most boys and girls in this study strongly agreed that learning about the environmental challenge issues would prepare them for the future and that people should care more about the protection of the environment. They also agreed that something can be done to curtail the drastic alteration of the environment. Both boys and girls agreed that science and technology can solve environmental problems. The responses to this statement appear to show that the respondents have a high level of confidence in the ability of science and technology to solve environmental problems. They disagreed with the statement that threats to the environment were not each and everyone’s business and also disagreed that environmental problems should be left to the expert as can be seen from the low agreement level to both statements. There was a significant difference between boys and girls views on I know the earth is in trouble but don’t really care with a p-value of 0.031. 

Keywords: Environment, challenge, management, education, earth