Biodiversity Conservation Education: An evaluation of Effects on Students’ Knowledge, Perception and Attitudes

  • M. Heavenlin
  • I.Kanitha Christy
  • Dr.C. Gunasekaran
  • V. Rajkumar
  • P. Chinnaraj

Abstract

The unsustainable exploitation of biodiversity by humanity has lead many of the
earth’s natural resources to the brink of collapse. In order to reverse this trend, conservation
educationist should reduce biodiversity illiteracy among the society, especially younger
generation. Students are the future generation of the world. To evaluate the knowledge and
attitude of the school students in biodiversity, various analysis and awareness was carried out.
In our contribution, we focused on finding the differences between primary school students’
attitudes towards biodiversity between their demographic variables such as gender, class
level, family type, type of school and family income. The sample consists of 814 students
from 10 schools. Students of grades 7th, 8th and 9th were analysed. Data were evaluated with
factor analysis and SPSS. The study emphasizes on the necessity to impart education for
students regarding biodiversity. According to the results of the analysis of students' point of
attitude towards biodiversity, in terms of variables; a significant differences were found in
favour of students, female students, and students in joined family and parent’s education
status.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biography

M. Heavenlin

Conservation Biology Laboratory

References

1. Chavas, J. P (2008). On the Productive Value of Biodiversity. Environ Resource Econ.
2. Cunningham, W.P. & M.A. Cunningham (2008). Principles of Environmental Science –
Enquirt & Applications. McGraw Hill, New York. 410 pp.
3. Enger, E.D & B.F. Smith (2008). Environmental Science – A Study of Interrelationships.
McGraw Hill, New York. 488 pp.
4. Jacobson S. K. and McDuff M. D.,1998. Training idiot savants: The lack of human
dimensions in Conservation Biology. Conservation Biology 12: 263–267.
5. Kellert S.R., 1994. Public attitudes towards bears and their conservation. International
Conference on Bear Research and Management 9: 43–50.
6. Miller J. R., 2005. Biodiversity conservation and the extinction of experience. Trends in
Ecology and Evolution 20: 430–434.
7. Perlman DL and Adelson G (1997) Biodiversity: Exploring Values and Priorities in
conservation. Blackwell Science, Oxford.
8. Schenk A., Hunziker M., & Kienast, F. 2007. Factors influencing the acceptance of nature
conservation measures – A qualitative study in Switzerland. Journal of Environmental
Management 83: 66–79.
9. Tim Caro, Monique borgerhoff Mulder, Marcelle Moore. (2000). Effects of conservation
education on reasons to conserve biological diversity, Biological Conservation, vol. 114,
2003, pp. 143-152.
10. Scantlebury, K., Boone, W., Kahle J. B. & Fraser, B. J. (2001). Design, validation and use
of an evaluation instrument for monitoring systemicreform. Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, 38, 6, 646-662.
11. Papanastasiou, E. C. & Zembylas, M. (2002). The effect of attitudes on science
achievement: a study conducted among high school pupils in Cyprus, International Review of
Education, 48, 6 , 469-484.
12. Keeves, J. P. (1975). The home, the school and achievement in mathematics and science.
Science Education, 59, 439-460.
Published
2015-06-30
How to Cite
Heavenlin, M., Christy, I., Gunasekaran, D., Rajkumar, V., & Chinnaraj, P. (2015). Biodiversity Conservation Education: An evaluation of Effects on Students’ Knowledge, Perception and Attitudes. IJRDO - JOURNAL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE, 1(2), 01-11. https://doi.org/10.53555/bs.v1i2.2353