Trends of change in environmental knowledge and attitude of Malaysian students

The study focused on measuring the trends of change in environmental knowledge (EK) and environmental attitude (EA) of the Malaysia Department of Wildlife and National Park's (DWNP) environmental education program (EEP). It was conducted between May 14, 1998 and August 8,1998. The sample was comprised of 402 randomly selected students from 10 different schools, with 200 randomly assigned to the experimental grouped and 202 to the control group. Both the experimental and control groups were exposed to the EEP. At the Environmental Education Center (EEC), the experimental group was receiving the pretest and post-test, while the control group were given only the post-test. The instrument used in this study was a modification of the Children's Environmental Attitudes and Knowledge Scale (CHEAKS) developed by Leeming, et al. (1995). T-test and ANCOVA were used to determine group mean differences. The school and agegrp*gender variables interaction were highly significant in relation to knowledge change. The interaction effects by agegrp*gender found the knowledge change of all age groups and both genders were significantly increased (F = 17.44, p= 0.0001). Although the change in knowledge for agegrp*gender interaction revealed by the results were significant, the trends in knowledge change varies. 13-15 year old female students and 16-17 year old male students had the highest change in knowledge when measured between the pretest and the posttest given at the EEC. The result also revealed that the change in environmental knowledge (EK) and environmental attitudes (EA) occurred from the effect of treatment and not from the influence of the pretest scores. However, none of the independent variables were significantly change in term of EA. Therefore, the investigator concluded that the EEP facilitated some change in environmental knowledge and attitudes. However, the change in knowledge and attitude on environment was small. Several improvements in the EEP are needed to increase the amount of change in EK and EA at the center in the future.