Students' Personal Epistemological Beliefs and Climate Change Solutions

• In Event: 67.019 - Investigating Epistemic Cognition in Relation to Food, Water, and Energy Issues

Abstract

This study departs from the point that environmental problems such as climate change can be described in terms of large-scale collective action dilemmas, where individual rationality is in conflict with collective rationality (Dawes, 1980). Therefore, government intervention may be considered necessary to achieve large-scale collective action if people do not make sacrifices voluntarily (Mansbridge, 2014). In democratic societ¬¬ies, solutions to climate change depend on public support for collective action and beliefs about the scale and nature of the problem as well as beliefs about the methods and bases for scientific facts regarding the nature of the problem. We present a study exploring beliefs among ¬Swedish students in upper secondary business education regarding knowledge certainty (Sinatra, Kienhues & Hofer, 2014) and efficient solutions to climate change.
Trautwein and Lüdtke (2007) reported a relationship between upper secondary school students’ epistemological certainty beliefs and education where business students showed the highest certainty scores in comparison to humanities/arts and social science students. Hence, a subject specific approach in relation to epistemological beliefs is of interest here and we focus on knowledge certainty in relation to business students’ beliefs in anthropogenic climate change existence and various solutions e.g. governmental initiatives and collective responses to environmental problems such as carbon taxation.
We focused on three questions: i) Are there changes in students´ beliefs of knowledge certainty over a year (from year 2 to year 3)?, ii) Are there relations between students’ beliefs of knowledge certainty and acceptance of climate change, if so, do these change?, iii) Are there relations between students’ beliefs of knowledge certainty and climate change solutions, if so do these change? A survey was administered twice, in year 2 and in year 3, and 142 individuals were identified as participants at both times. The instrument measured knowledge certainty (Trautwein and Lüdtke, 2007) and climate change solutions; education and information, market prices and tax and legislation (Ignell, Davies and Lundholm, in review).
The overall levels of knowledge certainty were at T1 (M = 2.36, SD = 0. 42) and at T2 (M = 2.35, SD = 0.38) demonstrating fairly high scores of seeing knowledge as certain with no significant change over time t(116)= .29, p = .77. A linear regression analysis revealed that knowledge certainty was a significant predictor of beliefs regarding climate change existence (facts) (β = .327, t(107) = 3.01, p = .003) at T2. Furthermore, knowledge certainty significantly mediated beliefs in solutions as education and information at T1 (β = -.299, t(114) = -2.11, p =. 04) and market prices at T2 (β = .428, t(128) = 2.52, p = .01).
This study indicates that knowledge certainty influences beliefs in climate change existence. Additionally, the knowledge certainty dimension may frame solutions as an information-problem, although after a year, knowledge certainty predicted market prices as a solution. Further research is needed to understand why a certain epistemic belief predicts a certain solution to climate change, governmental or other.

Authors

• Caroline Ignell, Stockholm University

• Peter I. Davies, University of Birmingham

• Cecilia H. Lundholm, Stockholm University