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NEP (Children@School): An Instrument for Measuring Environmental Attitudes in Middle Childhood

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2018

Parisa Izadpanahi  and
Richard Tucker
Parisa Izadpanahi*
Affiliation:
School of Built Environment, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia
Richard Tucker
Affiliation:
School of Architecture and Built Environment, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
*
Address for correspondence: Parisa Izadpanahi, School of Built Environment, Curtin University, Building 201, Level 3, Kent Street, Bentley WA 6102, Australia. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

While there are many environmental education programs for children, few studies have used an appropriately developed scale for evaluating how such education might have on impact on children's environmental orientations. The research presented in this article adapted the NEP (New Ecological Paradigm) for Children scale to develop a new instrument for measuring children's environmental attitudes: the NEP (Children@School). The NEP (Children@School) has been developed by analysing the impact of the design of physical learning spaces on children's environmental attitudes. Factor analysis indicated that NEP (Children@School) has three dimensions: Children's Environmental Attitudes towards Human Intervention, Children's Environmental Attitudes via ESD at School, and Children's Environmental Attitudes towards Eco-Rights. We argue that NEP (Children@School) can meaningfully measure the impact of learning spaces on children's environmental attitudes. While the instrument was developed for use in Australia, it has been designed for global applicability.

Keywords

children's environmental attitudesschool designNEP (Children@School)factor analysisestimate reliability
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 61 - 79
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2018 

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