Climate Change and Student Beliefs: An In-Depth Report

This report investigates student beliefs on climate change, examining the factors that shape these perspectives. It draws upon research to analyze the influence of social factors, high school experiences, and educational programs on students' understanding and acceptance of climate change. The report highlights the role of parents, peers, and teachers in shaping beliefs, as well as the impact of curriculum and out-of-school activities. It explores the disconnect between scientific consensus and student understanding, offering recommendations for improving climate change education and fostering greater awareness. The research indicates that a deeper understanding of climate change can be improved through targeted educational strategies, focusing on practical experiences, and enhanced engagement within school settings. The report emphasizes the need for updated curricula, social influence, and parental involvement to foster informed climate change beliefs among students.

Student Number Class
CLIMATE CHANGE AND STUDENTS’ BELIEFS
by
Student’s Name
Code + Name of Course
Name of Professor
Institution
City
Date
1

Student Number Class
Climate Chane and Students Beliefs
1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Most students do not understand well the climate change. The topic is usually linked with
misconceptions, which is often a discretion because defined knowledge of the concepts aims at
doing something about it. In this research, to find out students' experience, which correlates with
the belief that human activities cause climate change, data from the national survey of freshman
college students are used. General learning of climate change in class does not guarantee greater
belief in the scientific consensus. Class knowledge of climate change is less predictive of belief
than total time used to do science assignments or extracurricular activities (Arnett, 2010). In-
depth knowledge should be a worthy goal in understanding student's beliefs on climate change.
However, findings show that with students' science education, the belief of climate change is
highly affected by such social factors as the process and culture of education. This research
corresponds with the earlier research on students. The research findings indicated that there is a
stronger correlation between student activities and their viewpoints than between student
activities and professors' beliefs.
1.2 Purpose
Research has proven that human activities cause climate change. Yet, this proof is not
reflected in the beliefs of many students, a gap that is persistent and broadening. With such
reasons, students can foresee the impact of climate change on wildlife but not acknowledge the
effect on agricultural crops and livestock (Carnesale, 2011). Institutional learning is, therefore,
an opportunity to help students develop their beliefs as they review their concept for climate
2

Student Number Class
change. This is, therefore, a report on students’ belief on climate change and how the students
can be helped to understand the climatic change better.
2. Critique
Social influence, that is, the knowledge on pro-environmental action and socialization
among the students is a significant role in describing the beliefs towards climate change. This
method classifies the values of a person as either the inner part of the person's identity or as
external, therefore somewhat precursor to the individual (Carnesale, 2011). Social influence is an
example of the externa values. Therefore, it is meaningful to include social influence in the
studies of students’ approach to climate change. The most important socialization group for
young people is their parents (Arnett, 2010). Therefore, through communication and the parent-
child interaction, the student discerns only the values, norms, and beliefs that are important to
their parents. Arguably, parents are therefore seen as the first leading models to their children.
Their beliefs on climate change become a descriptive social norm for how their children should
view climate change. Descriptive social norms deal with perceptions of what role models think
or feel of opinions. These norms have been proved essential in explaining pro-environmental
behaviour. As in our applicable example, descriptive social norms can be subjective in that it is
the children's own judgement on what their parents think about climate change that has the most
influence and not what the parents actually think (Godwin, 2016). In addition, the authors point
out that this influence from parents decreases during adolescence as peer influence takes over.
Therefore, creating environmental awareness to peers will help the students adopt the value
orientations to be welcomed in the peer group. Research has been carried out on the impact of
social influence on climate beliefs, and it is advisable that parents and friends promote climate
change beliefs on the ignorant students.
3

Student Number Class
Educational programs that aim more on practical experience rather than theories can help
change the student’s beliefs towards climate change. Class topics, out of the class experience,
school surroundings, and the required time to spend on homework all influence the students'
beliefs (Chapman, 2011). The class experience that enhances students' knowledge of climate
change affects positively on the students' coordination towards climate change action. Just as the
parents and peer can influence the students, teachers have a bigger role as well. Students spend
the most time at school. With an updated education system, teachers can effectively engage the
students on issues of climate change and how to handle them (Carnesale, 2011). In addition, out-
of-school settings positively affect students' belief on climate change. Knowledge alone on
climate change is theoretically challenging. Despite not being a perfect indicator, research shows
that time spent on homework has an influence on knowledge boost. Therefore, students should
be asked to spend more time on homework, thus equipping themselves with the knowhow and
skills to scrutinize past data and climate change (Enten, 2014). The authors agree that learning
settings improve students' climate beliefs. It is, therefore, a pivotal role to enhance the learning
systems and help students improve their climate change beliefs.
In general, the authors researched and proved several factors that might influence
students' climate beliefs. Among them are; family interests and opinions in science and math,
daily time spent doing work outside class, type of institution attended, frequency of out of class
activities, and the class topics covered.
2.1 Recommendation
Students do not well understand climate change, and the topic is full of misconceptions.
This challenge is discouraging since perfect knowledge of the concepts would result in ideal
4

Student Number Class
reaction to the same. It is not too late as an understanding of climate change can be improved in
the following ways:
a) Deciding on a specific place to focus on climate change education between say lower and
upper secondary education.
b) Science teachers should formally include the climate and climate change as a topic in
their courses.
c) High school education should find ways to encourage a deeper understanding of the topic
of climate and climate change.
d) It should not be about teaching climate alone but also connecting climate change topics
such as farming and climate.
e) Social factors such as culture and the process of education should be improved to
promote knowledge on the climate topic. The power of school culture and peer education
can be focused on to spur environmental learning and actions.
f) Various types of schools should update their syllabus to cover all the areas of the topic of
climate and climate change. It is established that some school types don't focus on
teaching about climate change.
g) Parents who are well informed on climate change can help pass the knowledge and skills
to their children as early as the parents are still looked upon as role models.
5

Student Number Class
References
Arnett, A., 2010. Examining the Relationship between Student Understanding of and Belief in
Climate Change.. [Online]
Available at: http://eco.confex.com/eco/2010/preliminaryprogram/abstract_22152.htm.
Carnesale, A. W. C., 2011. America’s Climate Choices. NRC/NAS USA Committee on America’s
Climate Choices. [Online]
Available at: Http://Download. Nap. Edu/Cart/Deliver. Cgi.
http://www.sustain.ucla.edu/media_IOE/files/Carnesale-editted-Climate-
Chapman, D. J., 2011. Environmental Education and the Politics of Curriculum: A National Case
Study.. The Journal of Environmental Education, 42(3), pp. 193-202.
Enten, H., 2014. The Racial Gap on Global Warming. [Online]
Available at: http://fivethirtyeight.com/datalab/the-racial-gap-onglobal-
[Accessed 23 09 2014].
Godwin, A., 2016. The Development and Measurement of Engineering Identity. In Proceedings
from ASEE 2016: American. LA: New Orleans.
6