Learners and academic staffs' environmental knowledge, attitude, intention and behavior (the case of Adama university
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Date
2007-06
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Addis Ababa Universty
Abstract
Environmentally speaking, Ethiopia is in poor health due to
deforestation, degradation, excessive loss of fertile top soil, over grazing
and waste disposal. The existing environmental problems manifest crisis
of values, beliefs, knowledge and ideas. Despite the existing problematic
reality, Ethiopian Education Policy and Environmental Policy give due
regard to the well being of the environment and sustainable utilization of
resources. Nevertheless, there is no available research done in Ethiopian
higher institutions on whether students and academic staffs have
promising environmental knowledge, attitude, intention and behavior.
Besides, the relationships and linear predictive powers of environmental
knowledge, attitude, intention and behavior are not studied in order to
design a cohe~ent environmental education system.
To examine the above issues, examinations of environmental knowledge,
attitude, intention and practice were developed and conducted at Adama
University. First year Business and Technical students and academic
staffs were the target population, selected using stratified and simple
random sampling.
The findings reveal that both students and academic staff do not have
low environmental knowledge. Similarly, their attitudes are neutral. ' Both
groups also exhibit an infrequent habit of environmental practice
activities. As to relationships of environmental knowledge, attitude,
intention, and practice, they show positive relationships among one
other, having differences in strength. Besides, learners and academic
staffs environmental knowledge predicts their attitude, intention and
practice, showing differences in explanation power.
':.
Thus, there is a need to arm the community of higher learning In
particular and the public in general with the r~quired experiences and
understanding of environmental knowledge, attitude, intention and
practice in an integrated and holistic manner.
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Education