Assessing Environmental Orientations of Children at UNRWA Schools: Investigating Psychometric Properties of the New Ecological Paradigm Scale

Imad Tawfiq Sa'di

Abstract


The present study developed a modified New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale for evaluating the multidimensional nature of environmental orientations following a descriptive correlational research design. The participants of the study were 325 second and third grade students of both genders at UNRWA schools, Jordan. They responded to the NEP to investigate their perceptions about ecology, environment and the causes affecting their quality, which is of interest to environmental education curriculum designers for school children. The results have shown a significant and positive impact of the rights of nature, eco-crisis and Human Exemptionalism. The NEP scale has been regarded as a valuable tool for increasing the response rate, reducing the response burden, and improving the completion rate to check the validity, reliability, and dimensionality of the study tool. Therefore, the scale was recommended to be used as a valid instrument to assess lower elementary grade students’ environmental orientations and thereby evaluating the effectiveness of the environmental curriculum in developing such orientations.

https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.18.7.8


Keywords


Jordan; elementary school children; new ecological paradigm; psychometric properties; UNRWA schools

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References


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