Determining the Association between Environmental Education and Undergraduate Students’ Awareness, Attitudes and Sustainable Practices

Abstract

In Bangladesh, which has been extremely vulnerable to climate change and environmental degradation, EE is becoming more and more essential to the sustainable development. University students are important actors in building a sustainable society as they are about to become professionals, leaders, and decision-makers. Comparative analysis of environmental awareness, attitudes and sustainable behaviors of undergraduate students from universities in Bangladesh, between environment-related students (Target Cohort) and general academic students (General Cohort) was carried out in this study. The quantitative comparative design was used and data analyzed using independent-samples t-tests and Pearson’s correlation analysis. The Target Cohort scored significantly higher than the General Cohort in environmental awareness, t(185.7) = 15.55, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 1.57; environmental attitude, t(129.8) = 5.59, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 0.73; and sustainable behaviour, t(127.0) = 3.63, p < .001, Cohen’s d = 0.48. In the entire sample (N = 196), environmental awareness was significantly positively correlated with sustainable behaviour (r(194) = .33, p < .001) as well as with environmental attitude (r(194) = .70, p < .001). The results suggest that formal EE is linked to increased EE knowledge and EE related sustainable behaviors among undergraduate students. However, given the cross-sectional design and single-university setting, the findings should be interpreted as associative rather than causal. The study underscores the need to enhance EE and to make EE a cross-cutting theme in curricular subjects to help build environmentally aware attitudes and behaviours in the longer term.