Examıning impacts of natural sciences education in comparison with health and socıal sciences for pro-environmental behaviours in Turkey

Analysis of academic programmes has become very important for pro-environmental behaviours; however, impacts of natural, social and health sciences education for environmental knowledge and behaviours have not been investigated yet. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine these impacts on environmental knowledge and relation with environmental behaviours of 706 university students. According to findings of study, health sciences students differed from other groups in environmental knowledge, however, no differences in terms of behaviours. Another major finding is: there is a statistically significant negative correlation between environmental behaviour and environmental knowledge for all students and especially for ‘health sciences’ (r = - 0.208; p < 0.01) and ‘natural sciences’ students (r = - 0.131; p < 0.05), contrary to our expectations. For items supporting ‘consumer behaviours’, majority of students indicated they had engaged in environmentally protective behaviours. For example, ‘90.4% stated to turn off unneccessary lights’ (item 4); 79.1% tried to use both sides of papers (item 12) and 77.9% preferred public transportation (item 5). However, these high scores could be interpreted in terms of economical benefits rather than behaving environmentally. In conclusion, students did not have ‘internalized ethical values’ enabling them to behave actually environmental way by feeling themselves as part of nature. © 2015 Taylor & Francis