GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message

Teresa LeSage-Clements; Dmitri Sobolev; Barba Patton

doi:10.29333/ijese/14413

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Teresa LeSage-Clements ¹ ^* , Dmitri Sobolev ² , Barba Patton ³

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¹ College of Education & Health Professions, University of Houston-Victoria, Victoria, TX, USA² College of Natural & Applied Sciences, University of Houston-Victoria, Victoria, TX, USA³ College of Education & Health Professions, University of Houston, Victoria, TX, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Environmental education in schools is critical to help decrease plastic litter pollution because plastic pollution could be the most significant health problem of the 21st century. Our research examined the environmental behaviors and attitudes of Generation Z (Gen Z) high school and undergraduate students in South Texas, USA. The research was important because we need to understand what young people believe and value if we are going to see any change in environmental behavior. Results supported research on how teachers can influence student environmental attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge with education. Feedback from students revealed significant attitude change and a rich narrative of pollution and watershed ecology knowledge and behavior themes. These themes disclosed that a holistic environmental science curriculum is necessary to connect Earth systems with the plastic litter pollution cycle.

Keywords

attitudes
behavior
beliefs
climate change
environmental education
Gen Z
plastic pollution cycle
plastic litter
science education
2-MEV
values

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED, 2024, Volume 20, Issue 2, Article No: e2405

https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

Publication date: 01 Apr 2024

Online publication date: 26 Mar 2024

Article Views: 788

Article Downloads: 313

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How to cite this article

APA

LeSage-Clements, T., Sobolev, D., & Patton, B. (2024). GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 20(2), e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

Vancouver

LeSage-Clements T, Sobolev D, Patton B. GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2024;20(2):e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

AMA

LeSage-Clements T, Sobolev D, Patton B. GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message. INTERDISCIP J ENV SCI ED. 2024;20(2), e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

Chicago

LeSage-Clements, Teresa, Dmitri Sobolev, and Barba Patton. "GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education 2024 20 no. 2 (2024): e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

Harvard

LeSage-Clements, T., Sobolev, D., and Patton, B. (2024). GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message. Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 20(2), e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413

MLA

LeSage-Clements, Teresa et al. "GenZs environmental attitudes and ecology behavior nexus: Urgent education message". Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education, vol. 20, no. 2, 2024, e2405. https://doi.org/10.29333/ijese/14413