Changes in Attitudes to Nature in University Students

抄録

Abstract Development of positive attitudes towards the environment is an important element in environmental education. We investigated whether students at Deakin University who took the first year level unit SQE112 ‘Ecology and the Environment' developed any changes in attitudes to nature. Students completed a questionnaire before and after completing the unit of study. The questions provided information on six categories of attitudes towards wildlife. We found students who had taken SQE112 developed significantly more positive attitudes to wildlife in four of these categories (biocorrect, exploitation, natural stewardship and pest rights) but not in the categories controlled breeding and animal rights. In contrast, a control group of year one students showed no significant changes in attitudes to nature. Students who studied SQE112 had higher attitude scores initially than the control group, suggesting they were more positively disposed to the environment and chose a course which reflected this greater interest in environment. There were no significant differences in attitude change for students enrolled in SQE112 at metropolitan and regional campuses, although regionally based students initially had much lower scores on the exploitation scale. Our results are very similar to those found for USA students.