Exploring the role of science education as a catalyst for students’ willingness to take climate action

Science education aims to encourage students' active engagement in socio-scientific issues like climate change. While existing research has predominantly focused on science education as a provider of climate science knowledge, this study seeks to broaden our understanding by examining its role not only in knowledge acquisition but also in promoting intrinsic motivation and the perceived value of science. In turn, this study relates science education to climate-action-related variables, including biospheric values, climate concern, personal responsibility, and willingness to take climate action. Data were collected from 1864 students across five public upper secondary schools in Finland, and structural equation modeling was employed to explore the relationships between science education-related variables and climate action-related variables. Results revealed non-significant associations between climate science knowledge and willingness to take climate actions, with a negative relationship observed with the sense of personal responsibility for climate change. Conversely, intrinsic motivation in science exhibited positive associations with willingness to take both individual and societal climate action, mediated through biospheric values. Similarly, students' perceived value of scientific knowledge on climate change showed positive direct and indirect associations with willingness to take climate action. The perceived value of science also mediated the effect of scientific knowledge on climate action.