Abstract
Celebrating the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014), this paper presents results of two exploratory surveys taken in the province of Manitoba, Canada in January to March 2008. A random sample of 506 adults completed a mailed out questionnaire designed to measure respondents’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviours concerning the basic themes of the UN Decade. In the same period, a convenience sample of 294 students in grades 6–12 in four schools was surveyed based on a simplified version of the same questionnaire. Using these two datasets, we constructed somewhat crude standardized tests and showed that for students and adults, having attitudes favourable to ESD/SD is relatively more influential than age, levels of education and knowledge for behaviours favourable to ESD/SD. The differences are that (1) gender was most influential for the student samples, while favourable attitudes were most influential for the adult samples; and (2) while attitudes were practically equally influential to knowledge (though numerically more influential) for the student sample, attitudes were vastly more influential than education for the adult samples.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to express our gratitude for support from the government of Manitoba through Manitoba Education, Citizenship and Youth, and Manitoba’s Sustainable Development Innovation Fund. As well, we would like to thank the residents of Manitoba who completed our questionnaire, and Dr. Daniel T.L. Shek and the Chinese University of Hong Kong for inviting us to an excellent conference.
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Michalos, A.C., Creech, H., McDonald, C. et al. Knowledge, Attitudes and Behaviours. Concerning Education for Sustainable Development: Two Exploratory Studies. Soc Indic Res 100, 391–413 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9620-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9620-9