Energy literacy: Evaluating knowledge, affect, and behavior of students in Taiwan Lung-Sheng Lee a,1 , Yi-Fang Lee a,n , James W. Altschuld b , Ying-Ju Pan c,2 a National Taiwan Normal University,162 HePing East Road Section 1, Taipei 10610, Taiwan b The Ohio State University, 3253 Newgate Court, Dublin, OH 43017, USA c National Chi Nan University, 1 DaiXui Road, Puli, Nantao 545, Taiwan article info Article history: Received 9 July 2014 Received in revised form 8 November 2014 Accepted 11 November 2014 Available online 27 November 2014 Keywords: Energy education Energy literacy Energy program performance abstract Energy literacy that can empower people to make thoughtful decisions and take responsible actions is more important as energy shortages have become pressing issues in the world. Energy literacy was measured among a sample of 2400 secondary students involved in a national energy education program in Taiwan. Response patterns related to student background and factors determining energy consump- tion behaviors were also studied. Energy literacy was high and positive, with greater impact as expected by grade (senior high school students outscored junior high school ones) and there were some effects due to gender and socioeconomic status. Students' performance on energy knowledge was acceptable (over 60% correct across grades) while a notable discrepancy between affect and behavior was identified indicating that there might not be a correspondence between what people say they would do and what they actually do. Energy saving behavior was more closely associated with the affect than other variables. Reasons for the findings and implications for energy education in the future are discussed. & 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Energy is a pressing issue in the world as growing consumption leads to not only greenhouse gas emissions that radically damage our climate but also to energy shortages. The production and use of energy represent a challenge requiring awareness and beha- vioral adaptions at every level of society. Energy literacy that can empower people to make thoughtful decisions and act responsibly is ever more important (DeWaters and Powers, 2007). Energy literacy (knowledge, affect, behavior) is a learned entity thus warranting programs and studies of their effectiveness in grades K-12 (Newborough and Probert, 1994; Stern, 1992; Zo- grafakis et al., 2008). Recent research (DeWaters and Powers, 2011) found that US secondary students' awareness of energy is- sues was discouragingly low and similar to that of 20 years ago (Barrowa and Morrisey, 1989; Gambro and Switzky, 1999). People tended to self-report that they knew quite a bit about energy; however their performance on related tests did not support their statements about what they knew (Murphy and Olson, 2008). It was also noted that energy consumption behaviors strongly correlate to affect, but were much lower in regard to awareness. These findings highlight the need to improve literacy and knowl- edge of relevant events (DeWaters and Powers, 2008, 2011). Other important variables are costs for countries that rely on large amounts of imported energy (Taiwan as an example obtains 98% of supply overseas mostly as fossil fuels). In such instances education must deal with conservation by guiding individuals to use more efficient appliances, make appropriate choices, save energy in daily life, etc. In Taiwan a key indicator of what has been taking place is intensity (energy required per unit output) which has decreased by 1.9% annually since 2001 (Hu, 2011), but com- pared to developed countries there is still room for improvement. To close the gap and strive for energy independence, Taiwan proposed an energy policy with education as its centerpiece (Taiwan Bureau of Energy, 2009). Numerous projects have been conducted to increase students' energy literacy. A latest and na- tionwide one is the “Nurturing Talent for Energy Technology (NTET)” program in place from 2010 to early 2014. Two levels of energy education (Newborough et al., 1991) were emphasized – developing energy professionals in higher education and produ- cing a more energy-literate population via primary and secondary education. This effort presented a unique opportunity to study whether it achieved its goal, especially for junior and senior high schools. To date the importance of energy education is underscored in Taiwan, and yet there is limited documentation of where Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol Energy Policy http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2014.11.012 0301-4215/& 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. Fax: þ886 2 2392 9449. E-mail addresses: lslee@ntnu.edu.tw (L.-S. Lee), ivana@ntnu.edu.tw (Y.-F. Lee), altschuld.1@osu.edu (J.W. Altschuld), lulu1017@ntnu.edu.tw (Y.-J. Pan). 1 Fax: þ886 2 2392 1015. 2 Fax: þ886 2 2362 1453. Energy Policy 76 (2015) 98–106