Green Building Literacy in the School Building:

A Study of Five Middle Schools in the United States

Authors

  • Laura B. Cole

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7721/chilyoutenvi.25.3.0145

Keywords:

green school buildings, green building literacy, informal environmental education, green building knowledge, environmentally responsible behaviors

Abstract

“Teaching Green School Buildings” are places where architects and educators have aspired to use the school building to amplify student understanding of environmental sustainability. Educational outcomes in these buildings, however, have not been well examined in empirical research. 399 middle school students across five U.S. schools, with a range of green to non-green buildings, took a green building literacy survey that focused on green building knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. Results from regression models show that green building knowledge is predicted by an array of personal, socio-cultural, and physical environment factors; however, there is yet much unexplained variance in green building knowledge. Environmentally responsible behaviors at school are dominantly predicted by contextual factors in the school environment, where the model presented here is a fairly good fit for the dependent variable of environmentally responsible behaviors. Environmentalism at home is a strong predictor of both knowledge and behavior.

Published

2022-11-01