Abstract
Climate change and associated extreme climatic hazards are the most pressing issues in the world of climate emergency. It is now widely recognised that climate change research is important for education and reorienting education in the current climate emergency. In facing the adverse effects of climate change, educational institutions, particularly universities, play an essential role in creating and promoting knowledge and integrating climate change issues into their teaching and research programmes. Therefore, this chapter carried out a systematic review of the literature on how academic institutions shape perceptions of climate change and how climate change perceptions vary in terms of types of educational institutions, disciplinary backgrounds, and experiences with climate-related extreme events. The chapter also covered a discussion from relevant literature to understand climate change perception at the university, college or school level. The chapter also aimed to add a critical review of how and why climate change perceptions vary between teachers and students. The literature review findings demonstrated that teachers and students have a well understanding of climate change. Moreover, there is a consensus among them that climate change is happening globally, and the significant cause is human-induced. Several factors influence and even lead the variations of climate change understanding between teachers and students: socio-demographics, the experience of climatic disasters, climate change-related education, and involvement in environmental activities. The research’s broader implication includes promoting climate change education and awareness-raising programmes across the disciplines of academic institutions to minimise the risk of climate change and address appropriate mitigation and adaptation strategies.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anderson A (2010) Combating climate change through quality education. Policy Brief No. 2010–03, Brookings Institution, Washington DC. Retrieved on 25 September 2020 from http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/handle/123456789/29684
Azeiteiro UM, Bacelar-Nicolau P, Santos PT, Bacelar-Nicolau L, Morgado F (2018) Assessing high school student perceptions and comprehension of climate change. In: Filho WL, Manolas E, Azul A, Azeiteiro U, McGhie H (eds) Handbook of climate change communication, vol 3. Climate Change Management Series. Springer, Cham, pp 21–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70479-1_2
Bofferding L, Kloser M (2015) Middle and high school students’ conceptions of climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies. Environ Educ Res 21(2):275–294
Boon HJ (2016) Pre-service teachers and climate change: a stalemate? Aus J Teach Edu 41(4)
Boon HJ (2010) Climate change? Who knows? A Comparison of Secondary Students and Pre-Service Teachers. Aus J Teach Edu 35:104–120
Christensen R, Knezek G (2018) Impact of middle school student energy monitoring activities on climate change beliefs and intentions. Sch Sci Math 118:43–52
Cordero EC, Centeno D, Todd AM (2020) The role of climate change education on individual lifetime carbon emissions. PLoS ONE 15(2):e0206266. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0206266
Devine-Wright P, Devine-Wright H, Fleming P (2004) Situational influences upon children’s beliefs about global warming and energy. Environ Educ Res 10(4):493–506
Escoz-Roldán A, Gutiérrez-Pérez J, Meira-Cartea PÁ (2020) Water and climate change, two key objectives in the agenda 2030: assessment of climate literacy levels and social representations in academics from three climate contexts. Water 12:92
Eze E (2020) Socio-graphic analysis of climate change awareness and pro-environmental behaviour of secondary school teachers and students in Nsukka Local Government Area of Enugu State, Nigeria. Int Res Geogr Environ Edu 29(1):89–105
Fernandino G, Elliff CI, Sousa JHO, Frutuoso GA, Gama GS, Albuquerque IS (2019) Public perceptions of climate change: a case study with school teachers and undergraduate students in Brazil. Weather 74:320–325
Filho WL, Mifsud M, Molthan-Hill P, Nagy GJ, Ávila LV, Salvia AL (2019) Climate change scepticism at universities: a global study. Sustainability 11:2981
Filho WL (ed) (2010) Universities and climate change: introducing climate change at university programmes. Springer, Berlin
Filho WL, Alves F, Caeiro S, Azeiteiro UM (eds) (2014) International perspectives on climate change: Latin America and beyond. Springer, Cham
Gross N, Simmons S (eds) (2014) Professors and their politics. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD
Hansen PJK (2010) Knowledge about the greenhouse effect and the effects of the ozone layer among Norwegian pupils finishing compulsory education in 1989, 1993, and 2005—what now? Int J Sci Educ 32(3):397–419
Haq SMA (2011) Urban green spaces and an integrative approach to sustainable environment. J Environ Prot 2(5):601–608
Haq SMA, Ahmed KJ (2017) Does the perception of climate change vary with the socio-demographic dimensions? A study on vulnerable populations in Bangladesh. Nat Hazards 85:1759–1785
Haq SMA, Ahmed KJ (2020) Perceptions about climate change among university students in Bangladesh. Nat Hazards 103:3683–3713
Herman BC, Feldman A, Vernaza-Hernandez V (2017) Florida and Puerto Rico secondary science teachers’ knowledge and teaching of climate change science. Int J Sci Math Educ 15:451–471
Hess DJ, Collins BM (2017) Climate change and higher education: assessing factors that affect curriculum requirements. J Cleaner Prod 170(1):1451–1458
Hestness E, McGinnis JR, Breslyn W (2019) Examining the relationship between middle school students’ socio-cultural participation and their ideas about climate change. Environ Educ Res 25(6):912–924
Higde E, Oztekin C, Sahin E (2017) Turkish pre-service science teachers’ awareness, beliefs, values, and behaviours pertinent to climate change. Int Res Geogr Environ Edu 26(3):253–263
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007a) Climate change 2007: Synthesis report. Contribution of working groups I, II and III to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2007b) Climate change 2007: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (2013) Climate change 2013: the physical science basis. Contribution of working group I to the fifth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom
Karpudewan M, Khan NSMA (2017) Experiential-based climate change education: fostering students’ knowledge and motivation towards the environment. Int Res Geogr Environ Edu 26(3):207–222
Karpudewan M, Roth WM, Chandrakesan K (2015) Remediating misconception on climate change among secondary school students in Malaysia. Environ Educ Res 21(4):631–648
Littrell MK, Tayne K, Okochi C, Leckey E, Gold AU, Lynds S (2020) Student perspectives on climate change through place-based filmmaking. Environ Educ Res 26(4):594–610
McNeill KL, Vaughn MH (2012) Urban high school students’ critical science agency: conceptual understandings and environmental actions around climate change. Res Sci Educ 42:373–399
Nakayama M, Taafaki I, Uakeia T, Seru J, McKay Y, Lajar H (2019) Influence of religion, culture and education on perception of climate change, and its implications. J Disaster Res 14(9):1297–1302
Monroe MC, Oxarart A, Plate RR (2013) A role for environmental education in climate change for secondary science educators. Appl Environ Educ Commun 12(1):4–18
Morgado F, Bacelar-Nicolau P, Osten JR, Santos P, Bacelar-Nicolau L, Farooq H, Alves F, Soares AMVM, Azeiteiro UM (2017) Assessing university student perceptions and comprehension of climate change (Portugal, Mexico and Mozambique). Int J Climate Change Strat Manag 9(3):316–336
Oversby J (2015) Teachers’ learning about climate change education. Procedia Soc Behav Sci 167:23–27
Salick J, Zhendong F, Byg A (2009) Eastern Himalayan alpine plant ecology, Tibetan ethnobotany, and climate change. Glob Environ Chang 19:147–155
Santos, PT, Bacelar-Nicolau P, Pardal, MA, Bacelar-Nicolau, L, Azeiteiro, UM (2016) Assessing student perceptions and comprehension of climate change in Portuguese higher education institutions. In: Filho WL, Adamson, K, Dunk R, Azeiteiro U, Illingworth S, Alves F (eds) Implementing climate change adaptation in cities and communities. Climate Change Management Series. Springer, Cham
Siegner A, Stapert N (2020) Climate change education in the humanities classroom: a case study of the Lowell school curriculum pilot. Environ Educ Res 26(4):511–531
Skarstein F (2020) Climate beliefs in an oil-dependent economy: Norwegian pre-service science teachers’ attitudes towards climate change. Environ Educ Res 26(4):491–510
Stevenson KT, Peterson MN, Bradshaw A (2016) How climate change beliefs among U.S. teachers do and do not translate to students. PLOS One 11(9):e0161462
Turner WR, Oppenheimer M, Wilcove DS (2009) A force to fight global warming. Nature 462:278–279
UNESCO (2020) Climate change education and awareness. Retrieved on 05 November 2020 from https://en.unesco.org/themes/addressing-climate-change/climate-change-education-and-awareness
U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) (2009) Global climate change impacts in the United States. Cambridge University Press, New York
Van den Ban AW, Hawkins HS (2000) Agricultural extension, 2nd edn. Blackwell Science, Oxford
Wachholz S, Artz N, Chene D (2014) Warming to the idea: university students’ knowledge and attitudes about climate change’, room: patterns, motivations, and barriers to instruction among Colorado science teachers. J Geosci Educ 58(5):297–309
Wise SB (2010) Climate change in the classroom: patterns, motivations, and barriers to instruction among Colorado science teachers. J Geosci Educ 58(5):297–309
Yang L, Liao W, Liu C, Zhang N, Zhong S, Huang C (2018) Associations between knowledge of the causes and perceived impacts of climate change: a cross-sectional survey of medical, public health and nursing students in universities in China. Int J Environ Res Public Health 15(12):2650
Yoho RA, Rittmann BE (2018) Climate change and energy technologies in undergraduate introductory science textbooks. Environ Commun 12(6):731–743
Zhao H, Ewert A (2020) College students’ knowledge and perceptions of tourism climate change impacts: Do major, grade and gender matter? J Hosp Tour Educ. https://doi.org/10.1080/10963758.2020.1727342
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Ahmed, K.J., Chowdhury, M.T.A., Ahmed, M.N.Q., Haq, S.M.A. (2021). Understanding Climate Change Perception of Teachers and Students: An Overview. In: Alam, G.M.M., Erdiaw-Kwasie, M.O., Nagy, G.J., Leal Filho, W. (eds) Climate Vulnerability and Resilience in the Global South. Climate Change Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77259-8_20
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77259-8_20
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77258-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77259-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)