Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming

Jing Lin

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

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Jing Lin ¹ ^*

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¹ Beijing Normal University^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Background:
China is one of the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Chinese students’ awareness and understanding about global warming have a significant impact on the future of mankind.

Material and methods:
This study, as an initial research of this kind in Mainland China, uses clinical interviews to survey 37 grade eight students on their understanding about global warming, as well as their personal actions to combat it.

Results:
Findings show that students know CO2 and acknowledge the existence of global warming, but 94.6% of them have not formed scientific conceptual understanding or the ability to make scientific decisions to combat it. The study also shows that mass media, rather than science education, serves as the main source for students to obtain information about global warming.

Conclusions:
These results implicate that the concept of global warming must be added in science education and the teaching quality of scientific concepts must be promoted in Mainland China.

Keywords

global warming
scientific literacy
scientific concept

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, Volume 13, Issue 5, May 2017, 1313-1330

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

Publication date: 22 Dec 2016

Article Views: 2654

Article Downloads: 1458

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How to cite this article

APA

Lin, J. (2017). Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(5), 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

Vancouver

Lin J. Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(5):1313-30. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

AMA

Lin J. Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(5), 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

Chicago

Lin, Jing. "Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2017 13 no. 5 (2017): 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

Harvard

Lin, J. (2017). Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(5), pp. 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a

MLA

Lin, Jing "Chinese Grade Eight Students’ Understanding about the Concept of Global Warming". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 13, no. 5, 2017, pp. 1313-1330. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00672a