Asking The Participants: Students' Views on Their Environmental Attitudes, Behaviours, Motivators and Barriers

This study investigated student views on the relationship between their environmental attitudes and behaviours and their thoughts about barriers and motivators to environmentally responsible behaviours. The environmental attitudes and behaviours of students participating in a classroom-based environmental education program were measured using two Likert scales that had been tested for internal consistency and validity using the Rasch polytomous measurement model. Focus groups were held for students to comment on the results from the two questionnaires and provide suggestions with regards to the barriers and motivators influencing their behaviour. The findings of the study support previous research about the relationship between attitude and behaviour and the students' comments on the results provided insight that has not been widely reported elsewhere. Conclusions were drawn regarding the most significant barriers to specific environmental behaviours for high school students and how environmental education programs could be designed and delivered more effectively in secondary schools with the aim of engendering environmentally responsible behaviours in students.