Analysis of global climate change awereness of primary school students

High awareness of climate change at an early age has long-term positive effects on the climate. Exploring the dynamics of climate change awareness can shed light on important education policy questions related to climate change. The implementations of childhood education policy are preventive and cost-effective. In this context, in this study, the awareness of primary school students in Turkey on global climate change is analysed and social policy recommendations are presented to increase the awareness of primary school students in line with the findings. In the study, primary data (N=370) sampled from third and fourth grade students studying in 23 classes of 3 schools in Keçiören district of Ankara, Türkiye, in the 2021-2022 academic year were used. The data were collected with a questionnaire developed by the researcher. The sample mean awareness score was calculated as 16.12. Awareness scores were divided into two by assigning "high" for scores greater than or equal to 16.12 and "low" for scores lower than 16.12. It was found that 48.92% of the students in the sample had a high global climate awareness score. While 83.24% of the participants believe that global climate change is real, 84.05% believe that the issue of global climate change is very important. 43.51% reported that they were very worried about it. Approximately 47% of the participating students are aware of 6.58 of the 14 statements presented to measure global the knowledge of climate change concept. However, while 53% were aware of 3.71 of the 7 statements presented to measure the causes of climate change, 58% are aware of 5.8 of the 10 statements presented to measure the consequences of climate change. Students attained the highest awareness score to the consequences of global climate change followed by the causes of global climate change, and the concepts of climate change, respectively. Class and school; family and friends; Internet; TV; books and magazines; movies; museums, zoos or aquariums; newspapers; other sources and radio were among the available information sources for climate change, respectively. Students listed class and school, books and magazines, family and friends, Internet, TV, movies, museums, zoos or aquariums, newspapers, other sources, and radio, as the sources of climate change information. The determinants of primary school students' probability of having a high (low) climate change awareness score were estimated using Stata 15 software and Logistic Regression Analysis (LRA). The interaction of students' age, science course grade, class size, teacher's tenure, school attended, teacher's gender, grade level, class size and grade level; the probability of having a high climate change awareness score was found to be statistically significant predictors of low (high) climate change awareness. Specifically, the probability of a schoolchild to have a high climate awareness score at the mean values of all variables was found to be 0.485. There was no statistically significant relationship between students' high awareness probability and student gender, number of siblings, birth order, parental education level, parents' job status and social science course grade. Also, no evidence was found for a statistically significant mixed (hierarchical, multi-level) effects at school, class, and section levels. Keywords: Child, Education, Awareness, Primary School Students, Global Climate Change, Logistic Regression, Social Policy