Sustainable development concept in the chemistry curriculum: An exploration of foundation students’ perspective
International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education
ISSN: 1467-6370
Article publication date: 6 November 2018
Issue publication date: 22 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and behaviour of foundation chemistry learners concerning the sustainable development concept.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative and quantitative studies were conducted. Atlas.ti software was used to analyse the chemistry curriculum based on selected themes and sub-themes. A survey was carried out involving 132 chemistry learners. The chemistry learners were students from a foundation programme in a local university located in Selangor, Malaysia. The collected data were analysed using SPSS 21.0 involving descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
Document analysis on the chemistry curriculum shows that water is the theme most covered in the chemistry learners’ textbook, as compared to other themes. In general, the chemistry learners have good knowledge and attitude concerning the sustainable development concept. However, their knowledge and attitude do not reflect in their behaviour as an individual, as well as in the classroom. Moreover, their knowledge, attitude and behaviour focus more on environmental dimension, as compared to other sustainable development dimensions.
Practical implications
This paper is instrumental in assisting educators to assess how chemistry learners perceive sustainable development, and this may help to bring about changes to improve chemistry teaching and learning processes towards education for sustainable development.
Originality/value
This paper is an original and novel research paper which is first conducted on sustainable development concept in chemistry curriculum in Malaysia.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support for this study provided by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia through Geran Arus Perdana (AP-2015-012) and Geran Universiti Penyelidikan (GUP-2017-016).
Citation
Kanapathy, S., Lee, K.E., Sivapalan, S., Mokhtar, M., Syed Zakaria, S.Z. and Mohd Zahidi, A. (2019), "Sustainable development concept in the chemistry curriculum: An exploration of foundation students’ perspective", International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 2-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSHE-04-2018-0069
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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