Survey on Environmental Awareness

among Environmental Specialists and
Secondary School Science Teachers in
Malaysia
Zarrintaj Aminrad1, Sharifah Zarina binti Seyed Zakaria2, Abdul Samad Hadi3 and
Mahyar Sakari2
1,2,3
National University of Malaysia 
2
Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia 

ABSTRACT
 This paper aims is to investigate the level of environmental awareness in the concept of 
sustainable development among secondary school teachers and environmental specialists as 
club teachers. The survey was conducted on 35 science teachers and 20 club teachers of “Form 
Four” in the district of Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia. Dependent variable was included 
environmental awareness components while independent variables have been included 
demographic variables. A questionnaire was used as research instrument. Methods of analysing 
data were descriptive and T‐ test where SPSS software (Ver. 19) was employed. Research 
outcomes showed that secondary school science teachers and environmental specialists had 
moderate level of environmental awareness. In detail, specialists were shown an insignificant 
higher level of awareness than science teachers. In general, females were shown a higher level 
of environmental awareness than male group. This difference was only significant where 
environmental specialists were surveyed.  

Keywords: Awareness, Science Teachers, Environmental Specialists and Environmental

Education.

1. INTRODUCTION

In the end of the 20th century, the environmental concerns grew much greater, not only among the 
developed countries, but also in some developing and underdeveloped nations. The common reason 
was that the consequences of environmental damages to some vital resources became so apparent 
and horrifying that governments became worried and mass media found of great value for their 
headlines; this is due to the public concern (Karimi, 2003). Clear‐cutting of forests for agriculture and 
other forms of development, depletion of the ozone layer, degradation of fish stocks, erosion of the 
top soil, pollution of water resources, accelerated rate of extinction of species, destruction of 
varieties of ecosystems and global warming are few examples of environmental issues as a result of 
the Industrial Revolution followed by exponential development of science and technology which are 
considered as the main causes for ever‐growing environmental degradation. Major consequences of 
industrial revolution included development of powerful tools and technologies for overcoming the 
negative characteristics and limiting forces of nature, and changes in lifestyles that result in 
increased demand for resources, and utilization of natural resources (Karimi, 2003). Beside of 
destructive trend on environment during and after the industrial revolution, sluggish grew on the 
environmental awareness and initiatives revealed bitter consequences of the environment. The 
most helpful initiative, activities and movements resulted in international, regional and local 
agreements addressing specific issues are the increase of environmental awareness. International 
Environmental Events and Multilateral Environmental Agreements are few of the many 
improvements that emphasize the importance of the role of environmental education in 
safeguarding different components of the environment. Also there is different ways such as 
environmental education and introducing environmental issues to public for protection of the 
environment Khorshid Dost, (2003). Most of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs) 
recognize absence of environmental awareness and proper environmental education as the main 
cause of major environmental problems and issues. This emphasizes provision of Public 
Environmental Awareness and Environmental Education for all age levels of human 
communities/societies. Facilitation of public participation in decision making, planning, 
implementation and monitoring environmental plans and projects are also strongly recommended 
by most of these agreements. Education for environment might do well if it purposely directed 
towards school students. Understanding related to education started on (1986) which emphasized 
that “there is a paramount need to create a consciousness of the environment. It must permit all 
ages of sections of the society, beginning with child (Chethana, 2003). Environmental education has 
developed as reasonable way to answer the problems and concerns of environment. The concept of 
environmental education is still developing and waiting to find a right place in the educational 
systems. For understand of the terrible consequences there is a need to proper perspective related 
to subjects. Environmental education included two words: environment and education. 
Environmental education is the “process of recognizing values and the clarifying concepts in order to 
develop the skill and attitudes necessary to understand and appreciate the interrelatedness among 
man, his culture and his biophysical surroundings” (Council of Europe, 1976). For achieve to 
successful future in education system and having a favourable outcome related to environmental 
education is the classroom teacher. If teachers do not have awareness, knowledge, skill and 
commitment to environment in their curriculum, the consequences will be an environmentally 
literate student will be produced. Therefore, the teacher should be train regarding to environment 
before the students. There is a need for a new personal and separated behaviour based on global 
ethics, which can be understood only through the teaching and training of educational professionals. 
Hence, there is a need for keen on teachers and teacher educators (Shobeiri, 2005). Additionally, 
research in this area referred that although environmental education is taken up as a subject in the 
curriculum but for implementation of the study on environmental education, the subject faces with 
certain limitation. The teacher should be have enough information of the environmental education 
aspects by follow this way,  then he or she  can make the future generation aware of the 
environmental problems and their solutions. Taking into consideration this situation, the 
investigators felt a need to conduct a study to know about the environmental awareness of 
secondary school teachers in relation to environmental subjects. So, in this paper investigated the 
awareness of teachers and environmental specialists as a promoter of environmental subjects in 
class and also the effect of gender as a demographic variable in Malaysian secondary school in form 
four. 
2. MATERIAL AND METHOD
2.1 Participants 
The study has focused on the teachers and environmental specialists of 9 secondary schools at the 
age of 16 who attend “Form Four” classes in Kajang Town, Selangor, Malaysia.  
2.2 Sampling 
The total number of 9 (out of 14) schools were chosen in Kajang Town, Selangor, Malaysia. There 
were 27 environmental specialists as club teacher and 70 science teachers. For survey of their 
awareness the researcher used a validated questionnaire. Out of 37 environmental specialists 22 of 
them has been answered to questionnaire and out of 70 questionnaires which distributed among 
teachers   37 was returned. The respondent’s return rate was calculated for environmental 
specialists were 81.48% and for teachers were 42.85% percent. 
2.3 Instrument 
The research was carried out using a questionnaire as data collection instrument. It was included 20 
closed‐ended questions covering various aspects of the current environmental issues at global and 
local levels. It is believed that closed‐ended questions probably limit the responses to the topics 
(Fraenkel and Wallen, 1996). The instrument has fulfilled local authority concerns over the 
environmental problems. The questionnaire consists of 3 sections including “influence”, 
“perception” and “concern”. The first 5 questions of awareness measured the influence, scored by 
“1=Never”, “2=Seldom”, “3=Often” and “4=Very often”.  The questions from 6 to 14 of awareness 
that measured perception were scored “1=Much Worse”, 2=Worse”, “3=Better” and “4=Much 
better”. The last 6 questions of awareness evaluating concern of environmental issues (questions 15‐
20) scored “1=Not concerned at all”, “2=Somewhat Concerned”, “3=Concerned” and “4=Very 
concerned”. 
2.4 Statistical Analysis 
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS version 19.0) was used as computer software to
analyse the collected data. The levels of awareness were described by using descriptive statistical
approach. A categorical composite score conducted to understand the level of awareness among
participants. The analysis of T-test was employed to measure the mean scores among groups to
present participants’ differences on environmental topics in a significant differences (P<0.05).  

3. RESULT
3.1 Teachers level of Awareness 
Based on composite scores that computed from individual scores’ averages that shows most of the 
teachers 91.9 % (n=34) had scores indicating a moderate level of awareness and 5.4% (n=2) had 
answered to the high level. Only 2.7% (n=1) was in low level which is showed in table 3.1   totally, 
mean of awareness score of the respondents was 2.53 (± SD 0.28593).  
 
Table 3.1 Frequency of Response among Teachers for each Category of Awareness 
Awareness Category  Low  Moderate  High 

  N  %  N  %  N  % 

Number of Respondents  1  2.7 34  91.9  2  5.4 

 
Table 3.2 Descriptive Statistic for Teacher’s Awareness 
 
    N  Mean  Std. Deviation 
    Awareness  37  2.53     0.28593 
 
 
 
 
3.2 Environmental Specialist’s level of Awareness 
 
For given of the level of environmental awareness  among environmental specialists, based on 
composite scores that computed from individual scores’ averages that shows most of the 
respondents 95% (n=20) had scores indicating a moderate level of awareness and none of them had 
answered to the high and low level See Table 3.3.  Overall, mean of awareness score of the 
respondents was 2.67 (± SD 0.209). Refer to Table 3.4  
 
Table3.3 Frequency of Response among Environmental Specialists for each Category of Awareness 
Awareness Category  Low  Moderate  High 

  N  % N  %  N  % 

Number of Respondents  0  0  19  95  0  0 

 
Table 3.4 Descriptive Statistic for Environmental Specialist’s Awareness 
 
    N  Mean  Std. Deviation 
    Awareness  19  2.64     0.209 
 
 
 
 
3.3 Differences the Environmental Awareness among Teachers and Environmental Specialists  
 
The data were collected from the environmental specialists and secondary school teachers groups 
because both groups represented the population of environmental specialists in Kajang. The mean 
(with standard deviations in parenthesis) for the environmental specialists’ awareness was 2.6447 
(0.20876. The teachers group returned 37 surveys out of 55 surveys issued. The mean (and standard 
deviations) of awareness was 2.5365 (0.28593). Based on result the environmental specialist scored 
higher awareness when compared with teacher’s awareness. Table 3.5 summarizes the descriptive 
statistics for these groups.  
 
Table 3.5 Descriptive Statistics for Environmental Awareness in Environmental Specialists and 
Secondary School teachers 
 

  Group  N  Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean 

Awareness  Specialist  19 2.64  .20876  .04789 
  Teacher  37 2.53  .28593  .04701 

An independent-sample t-test was performed to evaluate differences in the levels of awareness for the
two groups. There was no statistically significant difference between the means of scores for
awareness [t=0.150, df= 54, p> .05] see table 3.6. The statistical t- test in this survey between the
environmental specialists and teachers shows the mean of awareness for environmental specialists
(M=2.64, ±SD 0.20876) was slightly higher when compared to the mean of teachers (M=2.53, ±SD 0. 
.28593).

The result showed that there was no significance difference between awareness regarding to
environmental issues. Therefore, fail to reject Ho and conclude no significant difference on
environmental awareness between the two groups. This is indicated that Teachers and environmental
specialists’ respondents have similar awareness, knowledge and attitude about environmental issues.
 
 
Table 3.6 Independent Samples t‐test for AKA between Environmental Specialist and Secondary 
teachers  
 
p value 
   df   (2‐tailed) Mean Difference Std. Error Difference 
Awareness  54  0.150  .10825  .07416 
 
 
3.3 Environmental Awareness among Sex Group

3.3.1Gender among Environmental Specialists

An independent sample t-test was conducted to evaluate whether there was difference
between genders groups (male and female respondent) of the awareness level. The statistical
t- test in this survey between the female and male groups shows the mean for female is
slightly more than male, 2.75 and with ±SD 0.123 and respectively, which accept to H1 and
conclude was significant difference in awareness between the two groups [t= 3.377 (17),
p=0.004]. This is indicated that male and female respondents did not have similar awareness
about environmental subjects.

Table 3.7 T-test for Comparing Awareness between Gender groups

Gender N Mean Std. Deviation t df p

Awareness female 11 2.75 0.123 3.377 17 0.004

male 8 2.49 0.213

3.3.2 Gender among Teachers

An independent sample t-test was conducted to evaluate whether there are any difference
between genders groups (male and female respondent) of the awareness level. The statistical
t- test in this survey between the female and male groups shows the mean for female is
slightly more than male, 2.5424 and with ±SD 0.29051and for male 2.4875 with ±SD0.27801
respectively, which fail to reject Ho and conclude no significant difference in awareness
between the two groups [t= 0.358 (35), p= 0.722]. This is indicated that male and female
respondents have similar awareness about environmental subjects.

Table 3.8 T-test for Comparing Awareness between Gender groups

Gender N Mean Std. Deviation t df p

Awareness female 33 2.5424 0.29051 0.358 35 0.722

male 4 2.4875 0.27801

4. DISCUSSION

4.1 Teachers Awareness 
The total mean of environmental awareness score of teachers in this study showed that 2.53 out of 
maximum score of 4. Overall, results demonstrated that the majority of teachers in this study had a 
moderate level of environmental awareness. This finding is consistent with results from Loon (2004) 
in a study conducted for university students. However, results are in contrast with reports by Hsu 
and Roth, (1996) in Dominican Republic where environmental awareness surveyed. Although, 
teachers had showed a good level of environmental awareness in their result but some study stated 
that the poor level of awareness or less information related to environment might be lack of 
environmental subjects in the curriculums (Yaghoobi, 2003). The moderate levels of environmental 
awareness which is acceptable and almost it is good level.  These subjects are probably related to 
media’s activities and private readings (Geok, 1998). Environmental Awareness is defined as 
responsibility and concerns towards the environment. Hausbeck, Milbrath and Enright (1992) 
studied awareness along with environmental knowledge in high school students. Their study 
concluded that the scores for awareness were higher than the scores for knowledge. They linked 
that their awareness is due to relatively easy access to information by electronic media. 
 
4.2 Environmental Specialists Awareness 
The overall mean of environmental awareness score of environmental specialists in this study 
showed that 2.67 out of maximum score of 4. Overall, results demonstrated that the majority of 
environmental specialists in this study had a high level of environmental awareness. These findings 
were confirmed so far (Loon, 2004). As mentioned, the level of awareness in this study was high. 
Respondents showed consensus with agreement degree in environmental awareness questions. On 
the other hand, the respondents were more favourable when the environmental concerns more 
specifically related to their lives. The reason for the above subject (high awareness) may be activities 
and attention to newspaper, television, radio and magazine coverage of environmental issues in 
Malaysia and also attention to these subjects by government and non‐government organizations. 
These subjects are confirmed by some other research carried out by Geok (1998), Perkes (1973), 
Huang et al (2006), Bogan et al (1996).They believed that environmental NGO’s would have a bigger 
role to play in the building of environmental consciousness in the population and in protecting the 
environment also they believed that media can be increased significantly the public awareness and 
attitude of the environment.    
 
4.3 Environmental Awareness among group of study  
Regarding gender, the present study revealed no significant difference between both groups 
included teachers and environmental specialists on environmental awareness. The result revealed 
that the mean score of environmental specialists slightly was higher that teachers. Awareness, given 
as concern and responsively towards the environment, has indicates for the way in which people 
achieve the information, perceived it, and stated concern.  
 
4.4 Environmental Awareness among Sex groups 
Regarding gender, the present study revealed there was significant difference between both genders 
on environmental awareness, among environmental specialist, which confirmed with conclusions 
found by three previous studies. The conclusions in these studies were: that women have stronger 
environmental awareness and attitudes than men (Zelezny, Chua and Aldrich, 2000), women are 
more likely than men to state that current laws and regulations do not go far enough towards the 
protection of the natural environment (NEETF, 1998), and that women expressed greater concerns 
for the biosphere (Stern and Dietz, 1994) while the result showed that, there was no statistically 
significant difference between both gender on environmental awareness among teachers. Having no 
significant difference between males and females due to the results of the mentioned researches 
proves that the level of learning and interest in environmental issues has no relation with gender. 
Therefore different genders can have identical reactions.  

5. CONCLUSION
In conclusion, with increasing teachers and club teacher’s environmental awareness will increase the 
student’s environmental views. Some of finding in present study including good indication level of 
environmental awareness among teachers maybe from their college or media and private 
interesting to environmental issues. Media should therefore be used more intensively to facilitate 
the transmission of environmental information and promote more positive environmental attitudes. 
Lim (1995) provides a good description of roles played by the media in disseminating environmental 
news in Singapore. The women are more interests to the environmental subjects and they have 
more attention to their environment, this maybe cause of their more participants to the NGO’s.     
 
Acknowledgement 
The authors acknowledge Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia for funding (UKM‐GGPM‐PLW‐147‐
2010) the project. The research is implemented at the Institute of Environment and Development 
(LESTARI), National University of Malaysia (UKM). We appreciate Ministry of Education Malaysia 
(MOE) and its state office of Selangor at Shah Alam for their kind collaboration, facilitating through 
Kajang district office and respective schools.  

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