Abstract:

Environmental literacy is currently perceived as a concept consisting of three dimensions (cognitive, affective and conative). The affective dimension is represented by declared environmental attitudes and sensitivity. A quantitative questionnaire was used at the environmental literacy testing of Slovak pupils at ISCED level 2 (International Standard Classification of Education) to measure their attitudes and sensitivity. The reliability of the corresponding instrument subscales (attitudes and sensitivity) and strength of the relationship of the demographic variables (gender, age, grade and leisure activities) towards the affective dimension of environmental literacy were analysed. Studied sample consisted of ISCED 2 pupils from 13 Slovak schools. Data were collected in spring 2019. Included were both school with and without environmental profiling. The total number of respondents was 958 (457 girls and 501 boys). Standard statistical methods were used for data analysis, e.g. Two Sample t-test, ANOVA, Spearman correlations. The reliability of the instrument's sub-scales (attitudes and sensitivity) was determined by the Cronbach α coefficient, which reached α = 0.81 for attitudes and α = 0.80 for sensitivity. A statistically significant relationship to the affective dimension of environmental literacy was identified for all demographic variables. In the case of gender, girls reached higher values. Variables age and grade showed negative relationship towards the affective dimension. Their values decreased with increasing age, respectively grade. Among leisure activities, there was a significant positive connection, especially between the affective dimension and outdoor activities, while a negative relationship was recorded in ICT. Multiple regression analyses revealed that leisure activities predicted variability in variable sensitivity by 21%, and, in combination with gender, variability in variable attitude by 19%. Leisure activities as well as gender aspect and age can be considered as essential determinants affective dimension of the environmental literacy of ISCED 2 pupils in Slovakia.

Keywords:

Environmental literacy, affective dimension, pupils, ISCED 2, Slovakia.