Abstract
Environmental literacy covers the areas of environmental knowledge, sensitivity, attitudes to the environment, including related competencies and environmentally responsible behavior. As part of the comprehensive environmental literacy testing in Central European countries, a pilot study was also conducted in Poland using an authorial research tool.
The psychometric parameters of the instrument and the strength of the relationship of demographic variables (gender, year and leisure activities) to environmental literacy were analyzed. Two Polish schools participated in the survey, respondents were students of ISCED level 2 (N = 237).
The reliability of all instrument subscales (knowledge, attitudes, sensitivity, behavior) reached acceptable values ranging from 0.67 to 0.77. Spearman's correlations showed a statistically significant relationship, in particular between the affective (attitudes, sensitivity) and conitive (acting) components of environmental literacy (ρ = 0.58).
All scales showed significant differences between boys and girls, which always reached higher values. The year variable was identified as significant only in relation to knowledge.
The analysis of the strength of the relationship between environmental literacy and leisure activities showed a positive impact of outdoor activities and leisure activities, while the impact on ICT was negative. However, these were relatively weak relationships.