Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Studies in Educational Evaluation journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/stueduc Modelling environmental literacy with environmental knowledge, values and (reported) behaviour Michaela Maurer*, Franz X. Bogner University of Bayreuth, Z-MNU (Centre of Math & Science Education), Department of Biology Education, D-95477, Bayreuth, Germany ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Environmental literacy model Environmental knowledge Attitudes and values Reported behaviour Assessment of educational modules ABSTRACT Environmental literacy integrates the variables cognitive knowledge, environmental values and ecological be- haviour. We used three factors in our study: the first includes item-sets monitoring system-, action-related and effectiveness knowledge; the second examined the “Two Major Environmental Value model (2-MEV)“; and the third analysed General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) via an established behaviour scale. All participants were Greek sixth graders (N = 223, M = 11.7, SD ± 1.3, 49.8 % = males). Results of the Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) indicated a linear relationship between environmental knowledge and values (ξ = 0.69, p > .001), values and (reported) behaviour (ξ = 0.80, p > .001), as well as between environmental knowledge and (reported) behaviour (ξ = 0.37, p = .001). We primarily used the theoretical environmental literacy model to holistically evaluate environmental education instead of applying isolated sales. 1. Introduction “Skills”, “environmental attitudes” and “environmental behaviour” were integrated into formal and informal syllabi around the globe after Rio (IUCN, 1970; UN (United Nation) (1992); UNESCO, 1972), trans- forming Environmental Education “EE” into ‘Education for Sustainable Development “ESD”. The original definition of EE refers to the fol- lowing: environmental education is the process of recognising values and clarifying concepts in order to develop skills and attitudes neces- sary to understand and appreciate the interrelatedness among man, his culture and his biophysical surroundings. Environmental education also entails practice in decision-making and self-formulating of a code of behaviour about issues concerning environmental quality (IUCN, 1970). Following the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005–2014), the United Nations defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 goals for all nations – not exclusively industrial countries – in their Agenda 2030 (Rieckmann, 2017). The agenda promotes sustainable development to protect the environment and to save the planet. Modern education, therefore, is no longer restricted to formal education in classroom settings. National parks, zoos and bota- nical gardens have become popular outreach destinations. To assess the impact of such initiatives, valid measuring instruments, evaluating variables such as “attitudes”, “awareness”, or “ability”, are required. There are numerous, individually or in combination, that test for factors like: • environmental knowledge [e.g. Frick, Kaiser, & Wilson, 2004 – knowledge types: system- (SYS), action-related (ACT) and effec- tiveness knowledge (EFF)], • attitudes/values e.g. New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) for adults (Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978); Two Major Environmental Value model (2-MEV) with its two higher order factors: Preservation (PRE), Uti- lization (UTL) and Appreciation of Nature (APR) for adolescents’ (Bogner & Wiseman, 1999; Bogner, 2018) and • environmental behaviour General Ecological Behaviour (GEB) (Kaiser, Oerke, & Bogner, 2007). Recently, (Geiger, Dombois, & Funke, 2018) have trialled all three factors (“general environmental knowledge”, “NEP” and “GEB”) in one study focusing on intercultural predictors. Not long ago, (Fah & Sirisena, 2014) have analysed the relationship between the three fac- tors using The Environmental Literacy Survey (ELS) measuring instru- ment. The three factors were sub-categories of environmental literacy regardless of any interventions. Fifteen knowledge items referring to three different topics (scores: four = correct answer; zero = incorrect answer) were used as well as 15 attitude items evaluated by means of a 5-point Likert scale and 15 behavioural items. We have analysed a mutual interaction – comparison using the environmental literacy model to assess environmental knowledge, values and, general https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2020.100863 Received 20 January 2019; Received in revised form 25 February 2020; Accepted 26 February 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: Michaela.Maurer@uni-bayreuth.de (M. Maurer). Studies in Educational Evaluation 65 (2020) 100863 Available online 01 April 2020 0191-491X/ © 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd. T