Changes in students’ knowledge, values, worldview, and willingness to take mitigative climate action after attending a course on holistic climate change education

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 373; p. 133865
• Main Authors: Tolppanen, Sakari, Kang, Jingoo, Riuttanen, Laura
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-11-2022
• Subjects: Holistic climate change education; Knowledge; Mitigation; Values; Worldview; Mitigation; Values; Worldview; Holistic climate change education; Knowledge
• ISSN: 0959-6526
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.133865

Though the need for holistic climate change education has been realized around the world, there is a lack of studies that examine the multidimensional impact of climate change education in higher education. To amend for this gap in literature, this paper uses a pre- and post-questionnaire (N = 245) to examine how students' knowledge, values, worldview and willingness to take mitigative climate actions change during a course on climate change. Though the course was designed to be multidisciplinary and holistic, the results show that the course had limited impact. First, the pre-post tests showed a significant increase in science knowledge, but knowledge on mitigative actions remained unchanged despite related course assignments. Second, though participants' worldview seemed to change or strengthen during the course, minimal changes were seen in students’ willingness to take mitigative actions. However, an increase in biospheric values -a strong predictor of pro-environmental behavior - was seen in some segments of participants, potentially predicting a lower carbon footprint for those students in the future. Furthermore, the findings suggest that during the course, individuals found new, environmentally friendly ways to address their hedonic pleasures, also potentially having long-term positive effects. Some differences in gender and field of study were noted. Implications of the findings are discussed in relation to planning and implementing holistic climate change education.