The Beginning of Marine Sustainability: Preliminary Results of Measuring Students’ Marine Knowledge and Ocean Literacy

Yen-Ling Lin, Liang-Yu Wu, Liang-Ting Tsai and Cheng-Chieh Chang
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Yen-Ling Lin: Taiwan Marine Education Center, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 20224, Taiwan
Liang-Yu Wu: Masai Elementary School, Yilan 27050, Taiwan
Liang-Ting Tsai: Institute of Education, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 97004, Taiwan
Cheng-Chieh Chang: Institute of Education & Center of Teacher Education, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung 20224, Taiwan

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 17, 1-18

Abstract: Ocean sustainability and resource use are emphasized globally. The primary goal of ocean preservation is to enhance citizens’ ocean literacy. In this study, cluster sampling was conducted on students from seven public middle schools in Taiwan to investigate their use of ocean literacy concept words, propositional sentences, and knowledge sources. Qualitative analysis, descriptive statistics, and one-way analysis of variance were conducted on 496 valid questionnaires. The middle school students exhibited an accuracy rate of 63% for ocean literacy sentence-making, which indicated a basic level of performance. The students commonly used terms such as “ocean,” “Atlantic Ocean,” and “tsunami.” Students had common misconceptions when using the terms “sea level rising,” “Kuroshio current,” and “tsunami.” In addition, students who were female, in a higher grade, and who attended a coastal school had higher ocean literacy scores. The students’ primary sources of ocean literacy knowledge were museums and television. Through an analysis students’ use of ocean concept words and misconceptions, the aim of this study was to enhance the implementation efficiency of marine education to cultivate students’ ocean literacy.

Keywords: marine education; ocean literacy; sustainable development goals; misconception; marine sustainability (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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