Attending a “green” university not linked with environmental literacy

The impact of college and university sustainability programs on their students' environmental literacy and pro-environmental behavior is unclear. Environmental literacy refers not only to knowledge about the environment, but also to having developed pro-environmental values, attitudes, and behaviors. Past studies of environmental education have focused on K-12 students and have measured how education affects environmental knowledge, assuming that greater knowledge leads to greater environmental literacy. This study focused whether a higher education institution as effective in increasing environmental literacy among their students.

Tel-Hai College for Science, Environment, and Society is a small Israeli college, and was chosen as the study location because of the college's strong environmental reputation, curriculum, and co-curricular programming. The mission statement of the college states a commitment to the environment and the Israeli Ministry on Environmental Protection declared the college a “Green Campus” in 2008. The college operates a “Green Campus Unit” which leads a Green Council on campus and provides environmentally focused non-academic programs for students. The college offers degrees related to environmental topics, including a BA in Environmental Science and a multidisciplinary degree in Environment and Society. Most environmentally focused classes offered are scientific classes, like Ecology, with a few humanities courses, like Humans, Society, and the Environment.

During the 2012-2013 school year, 1147 students (approximately one-third of the student population) from Tel-Hai College were chosen to participate in a proctored computer survey. These students were aged 18-35 and were proportionally representative of gender, ethnicity, department, and year of study within the university. The survey asked students about courses they took, their identity related to environmentalism, their engagement in pro-environmental behaviors, and their knowledge of environmental issues. Student answers were compared based on their year (beginning of first, second, and third year students and end of third year students) and their study focus (either Science and Technology or Humanities and Social Sciences). The researchers compared environmental knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors of students at different periods of their studies and of different study areas to determine if student environmental literacy increased as they went through the program and if study area influenced environmental literacy.

The study found that the Green Campus program at Tel-Hai College seems to have had little effect on students' environmental literacy. The most surprising trend revealed by the survey was that environmental literacy appeared to decrease as students progressed in their studies: third year students' environmental knowledge and interest in the environmental focus of the college was lower than first year students. The authors hypothesize that the reason for this trend is that each year, students admitted to the college have higher existing environmental literacy. Another significant takeaway is the lack of influence that environmental knowledge has on environmental values and attitudes. Students' pro-environmental values and attitudes did not increase significantly with greater knowledge, indicating that greater knowledge is not as important to environmentalism in students as has often previously been assumed.

As a whole, the student body had high levels of pro-environmental values and attitudes, moderate levels of pro-environmental behavior, and low environmental knowledge. Only 9% of students rated the college's environmental reputation as a significant reason for choosing to attend. Over half of students (62% of second and third year students, 58% of all students) hadn't taken any environmental courses at the time of the survey. However, Science and Technology students had taken twice as many environmental courses when compared to Humanities and Social Sciences students, and had more environmental knowledge. On average, students rated their environmental knowledge prior to attending the college as less than moderate and they rated school as fourth in sources for environmental knowledge (behind the internet, friends and family, and media). Science and Technology students saw the college as greener than Humanities and Social Science students and older students saw the college as less environmental than newer students. However, the general consensus among students was that environmentalism at the college was moderate.

Because the survey was only conducted once, this study provides just a snapshot of participants' environmental literacy. The findings of this study may vary in other locations and contexts due to differing levels of environmental awareness among students enrolled in college, particularly in other countries.

The researchers recommend that higher education institutions should focus on integrating environmental courses into the curriculum. Despite its environmental focus, over half of the study participants had never taken an environmentally focused course. Courses should focus on increasing students' awareness of environmental issues and their personal contributions to those issues. Courses should also be adapted to a wide variety of disciplines so that students can understand how environmental literacy is important to their fields. Environmental programs outside the classroom should be continued and should focus on how to engage in pro-environmental behavior.