Person: Williams, Riley Denae
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Riley Denae
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Williams, Riley Denae
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Publication An Assessment of Environmental Literacy Among Oklahoma Public High School Students and the Factors Affecting Students' Environmental Literacy(2017-05-20) Williams, Riley Denae; Leighton, Mark; Hitchcock, MaryThe purpose of this study was to assess the environmental literacy of Oklahoma public high school students. The Oklahoma Environmental Literacy Assessment Tool (OELAT), an instrument designed to ascertain environmental literacy among high school students, was used to address research questions concerning student subpopulations including: gender, grade level, residence and participation in elective courses. There were 980 respondents to the OELAT representing a wide variety of elective interests. Since the data reflected behaviors that were self-reported by students and not actually observed, the quality of students’ responses may have been compromised and thus considered a limitation. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics including: mean, median, mode, standard deviation, minimum and maximum, t-test, MANOVA analysis and Tukey HSD statistics. Using a two-tailed t-test, in the gender subpopulation analysis no statistical significant difference was found in overall environmental literacy or in the attitude domain. Females exhibited significantly higher behavior scores than males (p=0.036), while males exhibited significantly higher knowledge scores than females (p= 0.007). Thus, a portion of the hypothesis was substantiated. At the α= .05 level, there was a significant difference in behaviors, knowledge and overall environmental literacy. Seniors exhibited statistically significant positive behaviors toward the environment compared to sophomores and juniors, but there was not a statistical difference between the sophomores and juniors. Further, seniors exhibited statistically significant positive environmental knowledge compared to freshman, sophomores and juniors, but there was not a statistical difference between freshman, sophomores or juniors. Finally, sophomores, juniors and seniors exhibited positive overall environmental literacy scores over freshman. Thus, the hypothesis was partially supported in the grade level analysis. Contradictory to the hypothesis in the residential analysis, there was a significant difference in the behaviors, knowledge and overall environmental literacy scores between rural and suburban schools (p < 0.05), and between rural and urban schools (p < 0.05), but not between urban and suburban schools (p=0.99), (p=0.70), (p=0.86), respectively, where urban and suburban schools exhibited higher scores than rural students. Counter to the hypothesis there were no differences in composite environmental literacy scores compared to elective course participation (p=0.39). The study provided baseline data in the region where few studies exist to date. It is recommended that a statewide environmental literacy plan be implemented and that an environmental education component be added to the required state curriculum. Further, local school districts ought to establish a two-tiered environmental program with mandatory in-service training. Although this study focused on comparing the types of electives, it may be advisable to develop a qualitative follow-up study to evaluate the top performing schools in this study. Interviews of participating principals and teachers may provide insights as to why these students performed well on this environmental literacy study. Also, it would be interesting to address a correlation between AP science courses and environmental literacy. School districts in Oklahoma with established AP environmental science programs would be good candidates for this study.