Abstract
This quantitative research probe is based on the application of the authors analytical tool for comprehensive testing of environmental literacy of ISCED level 2 pupils in Austria. It aims to determine the reliability of the instrument, the correlation between sub-scales (Environmental knowledge, attitudes, sensitivity and behaviour) and to analyse the tightness of the relationship between respondent's demographic variables (gender, age, grade, leisure activities) and environmental literacy areas. 49 pupils from Neue Europa-Mittelschule Peilstein participated in the survey (23 boys and 26 girls).
Data were collected in spring 2019. The tool scale reliability reached acceptable values in the range of 0.66-0.74.
Through the Spearman correlations, a moderate positive relationship was identified between instrument sub-scales. Gender, grade and leisure activities showed to be the main determinants among tested demographic variables.
Variable gender has a significant relationship with attitudes, sensitivity and behaviour; higher values were always reached by boys. Positive relation was found between grade and knowledge.
Among leisure activities, sport has been the strongest predictor with a negative relationship to knowledge. Positively correlation was found only between stay in nature and sensitivity.
Multiple regression analyses showed that leisure activities in combination with gender predict variable knowledge by 38%, attitudes by 45%, sensitivity by 27%, and behaviour by 23%.