Students’ Knowledge of Climate Change, Mitigation and Adaptation in the Context of Constructive Hope

Humanity is living in a climate emergency where climate change should be significantly mitigated; additionally, greater efforts should be made to adapt to it. To date, relatively little research has been carried out on young people’s skills in terms of them mitigating and, in particular, adapting to...

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Published inEducation sciences Vol. 11; no. 3; pp. 103 - 116
Main Author Ratinen, Ilkka
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.03.2021
Subjects
Adaptation
Adolescents
Atmosphere
Change
Climate
Climate change
constructive hope
Coping
Education
Elementary School Students
Environmental Influences
Environmental policy
Factor Analysis
Foreign Countries
International agreements
International organizations
Knowledge
Knowledge Level
Measures (Individuals)
mitigation
Prediction
Preservice Teachers
Psychological Patterns
Secondary School Students
Secondary schools
Student Attitudes
Teenagers
Finland
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Summary:Humanity is living in a climate emergency where climate change should be significantly mitigated; additionally, greater efforts should be made to adapt to it. To date, relatively little research has been carried out on young people’s skills in terms of them mitigating and, in particular, adapting to the changes caused by climate change. The complex climate change issues of mitigation and adaptation are conceptually difficult for children because climate change is not directly evidenced in their daily lives. This study focuses on looking at mitigation and adaptation from the perspective of children. Meaning-making coping strategies enable the maintenance of constructive hope regarding climate change. In the present study, elementary and secondary students (n = 950) responded to an online questionnaire. Statistical methods were used to gather data on how students’ general knowledge of climate change and their mitigation and adaptation knowledge predicted their constructive hope regarding climate change. This study reveals that the students had a relatively high level of constructive hope and that general climate change knowledge predicted students’ constructive hope well.
ISSN:2227-7102
2227-7102
DOI:10.3390/educsci11030103