Biodiversity Literacy Level of Public Administration Students in a Higher Education Institution

A vital tool in the fight against threats to biodiversity is education, particularly increasing knowledge on biodiversity. In this context, it is important to discover the effect of environmental education on the biodiversity literacy levels of the incoming 20th century work force. This study aimed to investigate graduating public administration students’ biodiversity literacy levels. The descriptive survey method, one of the quantitative research methods was used in the research. A total of 119 graduating Bachelor of Public Administration students studying at a higher education institution during the 2021-2022 academic year participated in the research. “Biodiversity Literacy Assessment Instrument” was used as a data collection tool in the study. Independent t-test was used to compare gender scores while one-way ANOVA was used to compare student understanding problems related to biodiversity. Tukey HSD test was used to determine the direction of significance in multiple comparisons. The findings revealed that the participants have a high level of understanding and knowledge about biodiversity. Also, there is no dominant gender that has the higher mean scores in all the dimensions. As biodiversity literacy level in biodiversity knowledge increases, the mean score in conservation and importance of species also increases. The study has implications for teaching biodiversity that include activities to help students take responsibility for the protection of biodiversity and the place of biodiversity in the national curriculum.

Keywords: biodiversity literacy, environmental issues, environmental education