Impact of formal environmental education towards students' perception behavioral responses to global warming / Solehah Abdullah Hakim

Background Information: Global warming is the rising environmental issue since in the nineties. Knowledge is the key to empower good habits in our life. Knowledge derived from formal education helps to give better understanding of a field and behaviour of students to environmental issues is driven by the awareness triggered after the exposure to the issue. Objective: Study was performed to identify whether formal environmental education have impact on students‟ behavioral responses to global warming. Methodology: The study design is cross sectional comparative study. Field work for this study was carried out between September 2016 and March 2017. A total of 386 students participate in the study by answering a questionnaire form. The data obtained was analysed using SPSS and Statistical Excel 2010. Results: The actions that were proved significant to formal educational backgrounds were buying energy efficient light (0.001) and organic food (0.003). Other than that, actions that have significant association were walk or cycle to go to places (0.001) and taking part in environmental campaign (0.000). Other actions were not link to formal association where switching off lights when not using, the p-value of association was 0.515, recycling items was insignificant as the p-value was 0.016. Associations of recycling glass (0.017), and public transport (0.220) were also not significant for association to formal environmental education. Conclusion: Environmental awareness among students is triggered by the prevailing curriculum and guides in the education system. It is identified that formal environmental education has an impact towards the perception and behavioural responses to global warming.