THE STUDENT PERCEPTIONS, CONCERN AND KNOWLEDGE WITH REGARD TO CLIMATE CHANGES IN CROATIA

Ariana Nefat Dragan Benazić

The aim of the paper is to discover the student perceptions of climate changes, so the sample including the Croatian students of economics has been used. The paper contains the evaluation of the importance given to climate changes in relation to other humankind problems, research on the perceptions of the main causes, serious character of the phenomenon, concerns, perceived knowledge, evaluation of sources from which their knowledge has been acquired during education, as well as their openness to new information. When related to the population of students and the complete population, the main findings do not significantly deviate from those in the recent studies of the same kind. However, compared to the earlier research on the complete population sample, this study indicates that some advancement in understanding climate changes can be noticed. The theoretical part surveys the given issue, from viewing climate changes as the world problem to presenting the trendy perceptions of the complete population; it also comprises the perceptions that are based on some studies including the complete population and the population of students in particular. The practical implication would be that, starting from their awareness of how serious climate changes are and willingness to learn more about climate changes, students should be provided with more comprehensive education to become, as future academic citizens, able to make relevant decisions on the environmental issues. The limitation of the paper refers to the small sample including the students of economics, and the original quality of the study lies in the uniquely determined issues resulting from a combination with a number of previous studies, also contributing to the research into student perceptions of climate changes. Based on the included items, further research into their relationships is recommended.