Korean Students’ Environmental Perceptions: Focusing on comparative analysis with Canada and Singapore

The purpose of this study is to investigate Korean students’ perception of sustainable development. Using raw data on students’ responses to the PISA 2018, this study analyzed Korean students’ responses to items related to sustainable development and compared these results with those from Canada and Singapore. PISA 2018 student questionnaire's items related to sustainable development were reclassified into environmental awareness, self-efficacy, sense of purpose, and action. Results revealed that students’ awareness of ‘climate change and global warming’ from all three countries was higher than that of ‘global health’, and their scores for environmental awareness were higher than their environmental self-efficacy. Regarding environmental self-efficacy and sense of purpose, Korea and Singapore showed a higher response than Canada. Among the three countries, Korea showed the highest participation rate in environmental actions due to Korea’s socio-cultural and institutional characteristics. Students’ perception of sustainable development showed a mostly positive correlation with science achievement, and economic, social, and cultural status (ESCS), and the correlation with science achievement was higher. These results highlight that it is possible to identify Korean students’ perception of sustainable development and suggest implications for education in sustainable development.