Updates
Data collection for the 2023 research programme has been completed. The Flash Report is available at the link below.
The data collection for the international student survey has been completed. To present the preliminary results, we organised a conference with the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) on 30.03.2023. You can rewatch the event on MTA's YouTube and the photo gallery on Flickr.
Research programme 2023
This year is the fourth Students and Teachers on Sustainability research programme. It includes a questionnaire survey to find out what students think about sustainability.
The research programme will be carried out in 2023 on the basis of the ethical approval (number 2023/264) of the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University.
Students on sustainability
Building on the experience and results of previous years, this year we put even more emphasis on raising students' awareness, in addition to traditional research. The online questionnaire first assess students' knowledge, interest and attitudes towards biodiversity, and at the end of the questionnaire, students receive personalised recommendations on where to go for further information on topics of their interest, compiled in partnership with WWF Hungary.
The online questionnaire is available on smartphones and other digital smart devices. The questionnaire takes about 12-15 minutes to complete and participation is completely voluntary and anonymous.
The student questionnaire can be filled between 24th of April and 26th of May.
General information
The research is organised by PontVelem Nonprofit Ltd., professionally coordinated and led by the Institute of People–Environment Transaction of Eötvös Loránd University, with the professional support of WWF Hungary, UNESCO and other collaborating partners. The research is supported by the Ministry of Interior.
Research programme 2022
The research was organized by Alapértékek Nonprofit Ltd. in partnership with PontVelem Nonprofit Ltd. (as the organizer of the Sustainability Thematic Week).
The research was supported by the Ministry of Human Resources (successor is Ministry of Interior), the National Office for Vocational and Adult Education, the Blue Planet Foundation and the Alliance for Fundamental Rights.
Further professional partners: Educational Authority, Hungarian National Committee for UNESCO.
The research aims to assess students’ and teachers’ perceptions of sustainability, Its’ main target groups are the 10-18-year-old Upper Primary and Secondary School students and any teachers in Primary and Secondary School. The research also aims to assess the experiences of students and teachers who participated in the Sustainability Week. The research is conducted using online questionnaires.
The research program in 2022 took place on the basis of the ethics permit No. 2022/199 of the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University.
The in-depth analysis of the results of the 2022 Student Survey is currently underway. A Flash Report is available on this link (In Hungarian). The research report of the ELTE PPK Institute for People–Environment Transaction is available here (In Hungarian).
Thank you for the responses received!
Professional organizations participated in the research
- Eötvös Loránd University Faculty of Education and Psychology, Institute of People–Environment Transaction, Budapest
- University of Nyíregyháza, Institute of Environmental Science, Department of Biology, Nyíregyháza
- Széchenyi István University Apáczai Csere János Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences, Győr
- John von Neumann University, Kecskemét
- Forsense Institute
- University of Debrecen Faculty of Health, Department of Psychology, Debrecen
- Hungarian National Commission for UNESCO - Education Committee
- Pixrating Ltd.
Research methodology
The research was carried out in 3 stages
1. Questionnaire available to students from smartphones and other digital smart devices
The online questionnaire took ca. 15 minutes to complete and covered the following topics:
- students’ environmental attitudes,
- awareness of environmental problems,
- awareness of environmental problems’ solutions,
- understanding of sustainability,
- responsible environmental behavior,
- awareness of sustainable fashion,
- student’s reflections on Thematic Week.
The questionnaire asked for non-personally identifiable basic demographic and socio-economic data.
2. Questionnaire designed for teachers compiled after the Thematic Week
The questionnaire, which took ca 10 minutes to complete, was voluntary and anonymous.
3. Focus group research among high school students
We conducted focus group research among high school students in Budapest participating in the Sustainability Thematic Week. The groups of 4-8 students were over the age of 14 and led by BA and MA students of psychology at ELTE, in a semi-structured way.
International Sustainability Student Research
In order to strengthen the international cooperations of the research, a representative sample survey was conducted in October 2022 among 11th grade (depends on the national school system) secondary school students in Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic. The main aim of the research is to find out students' views on sustainability issues.
Results
The research was supported by the Ministry of Human Resources (successor is Ministry of Interior), the National Office for Vocational and Adult Education, the Blue Planet Foundation and the Alliance for Fundamental Rights.
Collaborating organizations
- Forsense Institute (Budapest)
- ELTE PPK Institute for People–Environment Transaction (Budapest)
- Selye János University, Faculty of Teacher Education (Komárno, Slovakia)
- Masaryk University, Faculty of Social Studies (Brno, Czech Republic)
- Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic (Prague, Czech Republic)
Research Program 2021
"The student’s online questionnaire was available between 19 April 2021 and 31 May. Within this period 31,788 student started to fill the questionnaire. During the data cleaning we narrowed the sample to those participants who finally served as the basis of the analysis. The environmental attitudes of the students were examined by the Hungarian adaptation of a child version of the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) scale. In addition to attitudes, the survey also aimed to examine students’ environmentally conscious actions and their intentions. In year 2021, students’ questionnaire contained separate knowledge assessment tests (Knowledge block) for 10-14-year-old and 15-21-year-old age groups. The questions of the tests address the knowledge of Natural Studies and/or Biology classes for ecological topics and the environmental acts in everyday life."
Teachers were asked about the experiences of the 2021 Sustainability Week with the Survio questionnaire program. The nearly 500 responses received, provided important information for planning the 2022 Thematic Week.
The following studies present the main findings of the 2021 research.
Publications
In Hungarian
Mónus, F., Bacskai, K., Varga, A., Berze, I. Z., Néder, K., & Dúll, A.
(2022). Általános-és középiskolás diákok környezettudatosságát meghatározó tényezők a Fenntarthatósági Témahét 2021-es nagymintás vizsgálata alapján. Iskolakultúra, 32(7), 47-68.
https://www.iskolakultura.hu/index.php/iskolakultura/article/view/43937
In English
Berze, I.Z.; Varga, A.; Mónus, F.; Néder, K.; Dúll, A.
Measuring Environmental Worldviews: Investigating the Dimensionality of the New Environmental Paradigm Scale for Children in a Large Central European Sample.Sustainability 2022, 14, 4595.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su14084595
Attila Varga, Iván Zsolt Berze, Ábel Zoltán Szabó, Hanna Emília Kristóf, Katalin Néder, Andrea Dúll
Schooling Could Be Too Much, Family and Friends Could Not - Associations of Pro-Environmental Behaviours and Intentions with Social Factors
European Conference of Educational Research 2022
https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/27/contribution/53098/
Attila Varga, Katalin Néder Iván Zsolt Berze, Andrea Dúll
Successes and Pitfalls in a National Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) Program – The Case of the Sustainability Thematic Week in Hungary
European Conference of Educational Research 2021
https://eera-ecer.de/ecer-programmes/conference/26/contribution/50110/
The research program took place in 2021 on the basis of the ethics permit No. 2021/192 of the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University.
Research Program 2020
The research was carried out in 2020 on an experimental basis with the intention of becoming annual. The research consisted of three main parts: an online questionnaire among students, focus group interviews with students, and an online questionnaire among teachers.
Analysis and publication of results
The results of the online questionnaires and the focus group interviews were processed by the professional organizations participating in the research. The results were published in Hungarian and international educational management and scientific forums.
The following reports present the main findings of the 2020 research.
Privacy and research ethics
In 2020 the research took place on the basis of the ethics permit No. 2020/162. of the Research Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology of Eötvös Loránd University.
