High School Students’ Environmental Education in Taiwan: Scientific Epistemic Views, Decision-Making Style, and Recycling Intention

In this study, to facilitate the integration of environmental education in science curricula and achieve a more sustainable future, the relationships among scientific epistemic views, decision-making style, and recycling intention based on the theory of planned behavior were investigated. Three instruments (i.e. SEVs, DMS, and RI) were implemented on a sample of 515 Taiwanese high school students and revealed sufficient validity and reliability by employing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Structural equation modeling analysis showed that students’ scientific epistemic views do not directly link to recycling intention, whereas SEVs predict decision-making styles and decision-making styles predict recycling intention. The research findings suggest that teachers might consider encouraging students to develop the ability to think deeply and holistically by adopting the scientific approach in environmental education. This research also provided important information for educators to deliver environmental education effectively under the environment of Confucian culture. Limitations of the study and future research recommendations are discussed.