Assessing the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course

Assessing the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Assessing the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course Inan Deniz Erguvan This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The significance of sustainability is increasingly accepted in society, with a consensus that higher education institutions should play a more active role in this field. As higher education institutions and society increasingly prioritize individuals' comprehension of sustainability, the need for accurate assessments of sustainability knowledge becomes more significant. To this end, this study aims to evaluate the sustainability literacy levels of students enrolled in a first-year composition course using a mixed-method sequential explanatory design. The quantitative phase involved 221 students who completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with sustainability concepts and topics. Following this, 60 students were asked to write an essay identifying Kuwait's significant sustainability challenges and proposing solutions. The results showed that gender, high school type, grade point average (GPA) value, and previous exposure to sustainability cause significant differences in students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes about sustainability and that the students primarily associate sustainability challenges with environmental problems; social and economic challenges are rarely mentioned in essays. sustainability literacy content analysis sequential explanatory mixed method 1. Introduction The concept of sustainability has been around for quite some time; however, it started gaining significant attention in the post-Industrial Revolution due to factors like population growth, increased consumption, and the realization that essential resources like wood, coal, and oil could be exhausted. This awareness led to a growing understanding of the importance of utilizing resources in a sustainable manner. Concerns about the ability of both current and future generations to maintain their living standards prompted a shift in thinking, ultimately leading to the rise and acceptance of the concept of sustainable development [25]. In the beginning, sustainability primarily emphasized the environmental aspect, with researchers considering it to be of greater significance compared to other dimensions. However, over time, the economic and social dimensions began to receive similar recognition and interest from researchers. As a result, the concept of sustainability expanded to encompass three pillars: the social, economic, and environmental [38]. The worldwide initiatives to redefine sustainability began after the inaugural UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, which focused on addressing environmental issues. Various definitions of sustainable development have emerged, but the most cited one is from the Brundtland Report, also known as Our Common Future, published in 1987, according to which, "Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" [16]. The United Nations' 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), represents a significant effort to address the intricate global challenges of our time. These challenges include the destruction of ecosystems, species extinction, depletion and degradation of vital resources, various forms of pollution, and widespread extreme poverty affecting millions of people. Scientists argue that our lack of awareness regarding the limits of Earth's resources has greatly contributed to the occurrence of these challenges. Thus, education is critical to achieving the world’s sustainable development (SD). The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework, a roadmap for institutions and educators to reform curricula and pedagogies around sustainability principles, is utilized by numerous universities worldwide [50]. ESD has gained political and institutional support in many parts of the world recognizing the fact that promoting sustainability literacy can foster innovative solutions to global problems. Thus, education is a critical tool for achieving sustainability goals and can help us create a more sustainable world by empowering individuals and communities to take action and make informed decisions that protect the environment and promote social and economic development. The concepts of sustainability and sustainability literacy have emerged recently in academic literature and practical endeavors. These ideas continue to evolve because of the advancements in environmental, economic, and social domains. Sustainability literacy is defined by the UN [48] as “the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that allow individuals to become deeply committed to building a sustainable future and assisting in making informed and effective decisions to this end.” It is widely agreed that higher education institutions (HEIs) should support sustainable development through research and activism. HEIs have a responsibility to teach sustainability literacy and produce environmentally conscious citizens, given their ability to shape students' attitudes and perspectives [46]. According to Leal Filho [32], the university cannot excuse itself from meeting one of the most significant challenges of humanity. ESD is most crucial at the university stage because students will soon pursue careers in diverse professions, and they will need to know what impact their professions can have in solving sustainability problems. Sustainability and sustainable development are interdisciplinary concepts that might lend themselves easily to composition studies, that serves a cross-disciplinarity function in students' academic lives. Composition instructors have more leverage for encouraging students to explore a variety of themes than academics who teach in more specialized areas [39]. This research was conducted to assess the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course and use this finding as a baseline to make a needs assessment that is highly needed to be able integrate sustainability into the writing curriculum and pedagogy in the department. The main research questions that will guide the study are: 1. Do students have different levels of sustainability literacy according to their personal variables, such as gender, high school type, grade point average (GPA) in their studies and their exposure to the concept of sustainability before? 2. Are students able to identify major sustainability challenges their country of residence is facing and offer solutions to overcome these challenges? 2. Background Sustainability Literacy The belief that a sustainable future necessitates a society equipped with sustainability knowledge has prompted organizations from various fields to prioritize educational efforts aimed at enhancing people's understanding of sustainability. In recent years, international organizations, cities, private businesses, and particularly higher education institutions have placed significant emphasis on the importance of sustainability education. This increased focus on sustainability education has also sparked a renewed interest in creating a reliable measure of sustainability knowledge and literacy. Several approaches have been attempted to develop a valid assessment tool for sustainability literacy. One notable example is the Sulitest (Sustainability Literacy Tools & Community), which was established after the Rio + 20 Conference [ 23 ]. Sullitest is an online platform consisting of a standardized set of multiple-choice questions that can be used globally, along with specialized modules that consider specific national, regional, and cultural contexts Décamps et al. [ 23 ] outlined the structure of this tool and highlighted its potential for measuring sustainability literacy on a global scale, recommending its adoption by educational institutions. Similarly, Zwickle et al. [ 54 ] developed a web-based survey tool to assess the sustainability knowledge of undergraduate students at Ohio State University, involving 1,000 participants and featuring 16 multiple-choice questions. In the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System (STARS) was introduced in 2010 and has seen participation from over a thousand institutions by 2022. STARS evaluate the sustainability efforts of colleges and universities in the United States and reward institutions that offer a greater number of sustainability-related courses or even require students to complete at least one sustainability course as part of their general education requirements [ 17 ]. The participating institution assesses the sustainability literacy of its students, focusing on the knowledge of sustainability topics and challenges. As higher education institutions and society at large increasingly prioritize the importance of individuals' comprehension of sustainability, the need for accurate assessments of sustainability knowledge becomes more significant. The development of improved measures of sustainability knowledge is expected to enhance sustainability education and, in the long run, foster a population with higher levels of sustainability literacy [ 30 ]. Sustainability Efforts and Literacy in Kuwait Kuwait is one of the wealthiest countries in the world due to the revenues generated from the oil sector. The country enjoys an abundance of wealth from the oil sector which make up more than 90% of Kuwait’s export earnings, a dependence that makes it difficult to diversify the economy and develop other industries that are less reliant on fossil fuels [ 26 ]. Kuwait faces several challenges in achieving sustainability which are mainly resulting from the country's heavy reliance on oil revenues [ 7 ]. Some of the major environmental challenges Kuwait faces include air pollution, water scarcity, and waste management. The country has high levels of air pollution due to its petro-chemical industry activities and transportation. Water scarcity is also a significant issue in Kuwait, as the country relies on desalination plants to meet its water needs. Despite this, Kuwaitis consume 520 litres of freshwater per capita per day, one of the highest in the world [ 31 ]. Waste management is another challenge, with large amounts of waste generated in the country due to high mass consumption, that require proper disposal and recycling [12; 29]. Currently, the consumptions of water and energy, and the production of waste per capita in Kuwait are among the highest in the world. The nation has introduced several endeavours to advance sustainable development, and the most notable one is the Kuwait National Development Plan (KNDP), which serves as a roadmap for sustainable development within Kuwait. The KNDP places emphasis on the significance of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, establishing targets for reducing carbon emissions, enhancing waste management, and promoting renewable energy [ 31 ]. Other institutions involved in these efforts include the Kuwait Green Building Council and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, which has developed initiatives such as the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Kuwait Green Energy Forum. The State of Kuwait officially adopted the SDGs in September 2015 and subsequently integrated them into its Vision 2035 plan. As a result of these initiatives, Kuwait currently holds the 101st rank among 163 countries, with an overall score of 64.53 [ 40 ]. Despite the introduction of these initiatives, there remains a deficiency in the implementation of sustainable practices by government agencies, as well as a lack of sustainable awareness among the public. Although only a limited number of studies have been conducted in this field, the prevailing message in most of them underscores the need for greater awareness of sustainability in Kuwait. For instance, a study conducted by Al Qattan and Gray [ 8 ] found that government policies and practices are insufficient in addressing pollution, particularly in Kuwaiti waters. Similarly, Al Sanad's study [ 10 ] revealed that a lack of awareness serves as the primary obstacle to the adoption of sustainable construction approaches in Kuwait. The study further emphasized the necessity for the Kuwaiti government to take the initiative in introducing standards, policies, and incentives to promote sustainability in the country. Other studies highlighted the general public's limited awareness regarding sustainable waste management practices in Kuwait, as well as the absence of municipal strategies for waste prevention, reduction, and recycling [29; 11; 1]. In short, while there is a growing recognition of sustainability among businesses in Kuwait and efforts from the government to foster sustainability, there remains a requirement for increased awareness and implementation of sustainable practices. Additionally, there is a need for stronger action to tackle the country's dependence on oil and to actively promote a more sustainable future. There is a lack of research conducted on the assessment of sustainability literacy or awareness among undergraduate students in Kuwait, with the only existing studies in the literature focusing on the environmental literacy of teachers or the public. One study examined science teachers in secondary schools in Kuwait and found low levels of environmental literacy among them [ 28 ]. Another study evaluated the environmental awareness of high school teachers, revealing that 60% of the teachers exhibited a high level of environmental concerns. These concerns were observed to increase with age, years of experience, the education level of their spouse, having children, and being non-Kuwaiti [ 14 ]. A more recent study investigated the awareness of climate change and its impact on Kuwaiti society, indicating that climate change is not extensively discussed or deeply engaged with in the country [ 42 ]. The researchers demonstrated that the coverage of climate change in Kuwaiti media and school curricula is limited, government officials lack substantial knowledge on the subject, and there is generally weak awareness among the public. However, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 express greater concern about climate change compared to the older generation, primarily due to their use of social media [ 42 ]. This research is significant as it represents the pioneering sustainability-focused study conducted within a higher education institution in Kuwait. As a result, the findings from this study are expected to make a noteworthy contribution to the field of sustainability education, specifically in higher education institutions in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. By shedding light on the current state of sustainability awareness and practices among undergraduate students, this research has the potential to shape and guide future efforts in sustainability education. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study may serve as a foundation for the development of sustainable education strategies, policies, and initiatives, not only in Kuwait but also in neighboring GCC countries, fostering a culture of sustainability within higher education institutions across the region. 3. Methodology This study has a mixed-method sequential explanatory design, which implies collecting and analyzing quantitative and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases in one study. Using mixed methods helps to provide a more comprehensive framework of the phenomenon by enabling rich and informative data and to validate and triangulate the data by analyzing the same issue through both quantitative and qualitative methods [21; 45]. Research Population The research population is the first-year composition students enrolled in the course in Fall 2022. In the quantitative part, 221 completed the survey. The demographics of the participants in the quantitative part could be seen in Table 1 , below: Table 1 Personal characteristics of participants in the quantitative part Variables n % Gender Female 131 59.3 Male 90 40.7 High school type Abroad 11 5.0 Private (Arabic/ Bilingual) 39 17.6 Private (International) 49 22.2 Public (Arabic) 122 55.2 Grade Point Average (GPA) (Out of 4.00) Below 2.00 54 24.4 Between 2.00 and 3.0 95 43.0 3.00 and above 72 32.6 Have you heard the term sustainability before? Yes 168 76.0 No 53 24.0 TOTAL 221 100 Table 1 Personal characteristics of participants in the quantitative part A total of 221 students participated in the quantitative section, with 131 girls and 90 boys. 55.2% are graduates of public high schools and have an average grade point of between 2.00 and 3.00 (43%). 76% of them said they had heard of the word sustainability before, and the source of this information was 52% social media and 48% university course or textbook, as seen in Table 2 . Table 2 Where the participants heard about sustainability Source of information n % Social media/ internet 116 52.5 University course / lecture / course book 106 48.0 TV/ Radio/ Newpaper 43 19.5 Conference, seminar 34 15.4 Table 2 Where the participants heard about sustainability For the qualitative part of the study, the researcher collected essays from students at the end of the Fall semester of 2022 from the same groups of students. The research population consisted of students from all sections who agreed to write an essay on the sustainability issues of Kuwait, which totaled up to 60 students. Data Collection The quantitative phase of the study involved gathering data using an adapted version of the Sustainability Literacy Assessment, which was originally developed by a committee at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for assessing the university's sustainability performance within the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment & Rating System (STARS) framework [ 47 ]. The assessment form consisted of four sections, which included five multiple-choice questions to measure knowledge levels, as well as Likert scale questions to evaluate students' self-reported skills, attitudes, and familiarity with various sustainability topics and concepts. The research obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval with the assigned case number 278674. A total of 221 students completed the questionnaire. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability scores for the different sections of the data collection tool are 0.84 for Skills, 0.72 for Attitudes and 0.92 for Familiarity with topics and concepts. During the qualitative data collection phase, students were instructed to write an essay in which they identified the primary sustainability challenge faced by Kuwait and proposed potential solutions to address this issue. This activity took place within a 50-minute class session, with the instructor present to provide supervision. Students were required to sign a consent form and were informed that the essay would not be graded but solely collected for research purposes. The essays were written on computers as per the designated setup. Data Analysis Quantitative data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 25.0 software. Descriptive statistical methods, such as numbers, percentages, minimum-maximum values, median, mean, and standard deviation, were utilized. Chi-square analysis was applied to test the homogeneity of groups. The data were assessed for compatibility with normal distribution using Q-Q Plot, examining skewness and kurtosis values (± 3). For comparing quantitative data in normally distributed sets, independent t-test was employed to analyze differences between two independent groups, while dependent t-test was used for comparisons between two dependent stages. One-way ANOVA was employed for comparing more than two independent groups. Bonferroni was used when there was a statistically significant difference among groups. The data obtained in the qualitative research were examined both qualitatively and quantitatively. Student essays were imported into the MAXQDA 2022 software for analysis. The quantitative content analysis was conducted using the MaxDictio function of the software for demonstrating the most frequent words and word combinations in the essay. The qualitative content analysis adopted a combination of inductive and deductive approaches. The researcher carefully reviewed the data multiple times and generated initial codes. Codes that were related to each other were grouped under relevant themes and labelled accordingly. Subsequently, the obtained themes were explained in detail. Finally, the researcher interpreted the findings and supported them with various visual representations. 4. Results Research Question 1 The first research question of the study investigated whether students have different levels of sustainability literacy according to their personal variables, such as gender, high school type, GPA in their studies and their exposure to the concept of sustainability before. To investigate the participants’ scores based on their demographic characteristics, an independent t-test comparing two independent groups, and one-way analysis of variance was conducted comparing more than two independent groups were conducted which could be seen in Table 3 . Table 3 Difference analysis results according to variables Variables Knowledge Skills Attitudes Topics & concepts \(\stackrel{-}{\varvec{X}}\) Sd \(\stackrel{-}{\varvec{X}}\) Sd \(\stackrel{-}{\varvec{X}}\) Sd \(\stackrel{-}{\varvec{X}}\) Sd Gender Female 1.26 1.11 3.37 0.72 3.71 0.57 3.18 0.72 Male 1.42 1.24 3.34 0.84 3.59 0.71 2.98 0.78 Test value -1.020** 0.287** 1.406** 1.977** p 0.309 0.774 0.161 0.049* High school type Abroad (1) 2.09 0.83 3.75 0.42 3.73 0.59 3.63 0.59 Private (Arabic/ Bilingual) (2) 1.36 1.14 3.25 0.88 3.78 0.56 3.12 0.64 Private (International) (3) 1.65 1.39 3.50 0.74 3.73 0.81 3.29 0.72 Public (Arabic) (4) 1.11 1.05 3.29 0.75 3.59 0.57 2.96 0.78 Test value 4.412*** 2.087*** 1.324*** 4.422*** p 0.005* 0.103 0.268 0.005* Bonferroni 1 > 4, 3 > 4 1 > 4 GPA value Below 2.00 (1) 0.87 1.01 3.16 0.70 3.54 0.59 3.02 0.58 Between 2.00 and 3.0 (2) 1.33 1.09 3.40 0.72 3.75 0.60 3.11 0.75 3.00 and above (3) 1.67 1.27 3.44 0.86 3.64 0.69 3.14 0.85 Test value 7.645*** 2.324*** 1.998*** 0.455*** p 0.001* 0.100 0.138 0.635 Bonferroni 3 > 1 Whether they heard sustainability before Yes 1.48 1.16 3.46 0.70 3.74 0.65 3.18 0.71 No 0.83 1.05 3.03 0.88 3.42 0.51 2.83 0.81 Test value 3.651** 3.636** 3.259** 3.063** p 0.000* 0.000* 0.001* 0.002* *p < 0.05, **Independent t-test, ***One-way analysis of variance Table 3 Difference analysis results according to variables A statistically significant difference was observed in the scores of the participants' familiarity with topics & concepts based on their genders (p < 0.05), which demonstrated that female participants had higher scores in familiarity with topics & concepts compared to male participants. A statistically significant difference was detected in the knowledge scores and familiarity with topics & concepts scores based on the type of high school attended by the participants (p < 0.05). When Bonferroni correction was applied to determine the differentiating group, it was seen that participants who studied high school abroad and in a "Private (International)" had higher scores in knowledge compared to participants from the "Public (Arabic)" high school type. Participants from the "Abroad" high school type also had higher scores in familiarity with topics & concepts compared to participants from the "Public (Arabic)" high school type. Participants' GPA values also yielded a statistically significant difference in the knowledge scores (p < 0.05). Bonferroni correction result demonstrate that the differentiating group was the participants with a GPA value of 3.00 and above who had higher scores in knowledge compared to participants with a GPA value below 2.00. Whether the participants had previously heard the term "sustainability" (p < 0.05) resulted in a statistically significant difference in the scores of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with topics & concepts. Participants who had heard the term "sustainability" had scored higher than those who had not heard the term in all sections of the questionnaire. However, it should also be added that regardless of the personal variables, the knowledge score among the participants is quite low, the highest score obtained out of 5 is 2 (by graduates of high schools abroad) and the lowest is 0.8 (by participants who never heard sustainability before and those who have a GPA below 2). Research Question 2 The second research question of the study analyzed whether students were able to identify major sustainability challenges Kuwait is facing and offer solutions to overcome these challenges both quantitatively and qualitatively. In the quantitative content analysis, the word frequency function of MaxDictio was used to scan the student essays for the most frequently used words in student essays and the results for the most frequent 15 words are displayed in Table 4 : Table 4 15 most frequent words in student essays Word Frequency Documents environment 226 36 car 131 31 oil 122 29 pollution 90 24 air 85 23 factory 64 20 clean 46 17 pollute 32 17 weather 40 16 plastic 51 13 energy 49 13 healthy 21 13 water 54 12 economic 45 12 trash 38 12 Table 4 15. most frequent words in student essays The most frequent words show a clear tendency for environmental problems, and particularly a pollution problem, resulting from oil and the country’s dependence on cars. When we look at the top 5 words with frequencies and the number of student essays mentioning these words, environment, car, oil, pollution, and air give us a clear picture of the country’s biggest challenge. To be able to understand what these may mean in a larger context, MaxDictio was run again for word combinations and the word combinations with a frequency of 4 and above are shown below: Table 5 Table 5 Frequent word combinations in student essays Word combination Frequency Documents fossil fuel 27 4 air pollution 24 7 global warming 18 6 solar energy 17 6 renewable energy 14 4 electric car 11 7 environmental sustainability 11 4 marine pollution 8 1 plastic straw 8 1 sustainable source 8 2 mental health 6 1 air quality 5 3 car accident 5 2 renewable resource 5 1 carbon emission 4 1 environmental pollution 4 2 Frequent word combinations in student essays According to Table 5 , the most frequently used word combination was fossil fuel by 27 times and in 4 essays. Air pollution was the 2nd most frequent word combination with 24 frequency and 7 essays. Global warming is another frequent word combination with 18 frequency and 7 essays. The list shows that except for mental health and car accidents, all the word combinations are related to the environmental dimension of sustainability, which shows students who participated in the qualitative data collection were aware of the environmental challenges their country is facing but did not think social and economic challenges were as important. Table 6 Table 6 The codes of sustainability problems in student essays Codes of Problems Frequency of codes Economic Sustainability Problems Overdependence on oil 10 Donating money to other countries 5 Social Sustainability Problems Health & Wellbeing - Mental health - Obesity - Car accidents - Respiratory problems - Heat related problems 1 1 1 4 1 Lack of quality infrastructure Discrimination & Inequality 6 1 Environmental Sustainability Problems Pollution & Littering 46 Climate change & Global warming 16 Loss of biodiversity 2 Limited resources 4 SUM 98 The codes of sustainability problems in student essays Table 6 shows the results of the qualitative content analysis investigating student perspectives of the major sustainability challenges in Kuwait. According to the results, dependence on oil and donating money to other countries are the major issue in the economic area. Social sustainability issues in Kuwait as per student views could be listed as health & wellbeing problems (mental health, obesity, traffic accidents, respiratory, and heat related problems), lack of quality infrastructure, and discrimination and human rights issues in Kuwait. In the environmental dimension, pollution and littering was the most frequently mentioned problem, followed by climate change. Loss of biodiversity and scarcity of resources were the other two major environmental sustainability challenges as per student essays. In the same data collection tool, students were also asked to propose solutions to the major sustainability challenge they identified. The table below shows the codes of these solutions in the student essays. Table 7 Table 7 The codes of sustainability solutions in student essays Codes of Solutions Frequency of Codes Economic Sustainability Solutions Diversifying revenues 11 Social Sustainability Solutions Improving the infrastructure Fighting malnutrition & obesity More efficient government & institutions Environmental Sustainability Solutions 7 1 4 Switching to clean energy 23 Raising awareness 16 Imposing fine & penalty on violators 11 Conserving & Recycling 8 Improving public transportation 8 Better waste management 8 Moving industry outside residential areas Planting trees Laws to reduce carbon emissions Tax & Price increase on oil 7 7 5 1 SUM 117 The codes of sustainability solutions in student essays Table 7 displays the content analysis and the frequencies of the solutions participants have expressed in their essays. Table 6 showed a clear tendency for students to emphasize the environmental problems their country is experiencing, likewise this table shows the students’ priority as solutions to the environmental problems in the country. Oil industry, carbon emissions from fossil fuels and overall pollution and littering were seen as the major problems by students, thus, their solutions target these problem areas. Switching to clean energy such as electric cars and solar energy is the most frequently mentioned solution by students. The 2nd most frequent solution is raising awareness, which is closely followed by imposing penalties on violators. In the economic area, overdependence on oil as the country’s only income was identified as a major problem, hence, seeing diversification of country’s revenues as a frequent solution in the economic sustainability area is not surprising. Social sustainability solutions are mainly limited to improving the infrastructure (particularly roads & motorways) and implementing a more efficient decision-making system in the governmental institutions. 5. Discussion The findings of the study reveal that students’ personal characteristics have resulted in statistically significant differences in their sustainability related knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with sustainability. Female students were more familiar with sustainability than male students. The high school type played a role in participant scores, with graduates of High School Abroad and private schools (with American or British Curriculum) scoring better than public school graduates in the knowledge test and familiarity. Students with a higher GPA (3 and above) scored higher in the knowledge test than those with a GPA 2 and below. Also, participants who reported they had heard of the term sustainability before, scored significantly higher than those who had not in all sections of the questionnaire. The results of the quantitative analysis are aligned with other studies in literature. For example, gender is one of the variables that made a difference in student perception in environmental and sustainability related topics. According to other scholars, women tend to exhibit stronger environmental attitudes and behaviors compared to men and display a higher level of sustainability-related attitudes [43; 51; 3]. The researchers attribute these disparities to gender socialization. Women are generally reported to be more concerned with environmental welfare than men and this lack of concern (and/or perhaps even knowledge) may lead to a dismissal of such topic question by men in studies [ 44 ]. The type of high school students graduated from also played a role in different perceptions and knowledge scores of students. Students who completed high school abroad or graduated from a private international school in Kuwait had higher scores than the graduates of public schools and private schools with a bilingual education. Across all sections of the questionnaire, public school graduates consistently scored the lowest. This underperformance could be attributed to the fact that Kuwait's education system falls significantly below international standards. Research conducted by Al Hashem and Al Kandari [ 6 ] on Kuwait's low performance in TIMSS assessments over the past 20 years revealed inefficiencies in the education system, including an inadequate curriculum, insufficient teacher training, ineffective pedagogical methods, and assessment tools that fail to meet students' needs. Al Hashem [ 5 ] also highlights the social capital gap in education between public and private schools in Kuwait, spanning from early stages to higher education. She emphasizes the need for interventions targeting students who have unqualified teachers and an outdated educational paradigm. To improve the education system, it is suggested to incorporate more technology, enhance the educational curriculum, and raise recruitment standards for teachers while focusing on their teaching skills [34; 2; 4]. A Kuwait-based study seems to confirm this gap between public and private school graduates [ 42 ]. The research involved conducting focus group interviews with students and graduates from both public and private Western schools. Participants from public schools emphasized the lack of climate change education in their curriculum. In contrast, those from private schools noted that climate change was partially covered in their curriculum and addressed through extracurricular activities such as after school clubs and events like 'Earth Day'. Another significant difference was observed between students with high (3.00 and above) and low (2.00 and below) GPA. Students with a higher academic performance scored higher in the knowledge test about sustainability. These students knew more about the definitions of sustainability and its three pillars, namely, environmental, economic, and social. It is not surprising that higher grades correlate with a higher level of sustainability literacy, since such students might be willing to invest more time into learning about the complex challenges of sustainable development. Briens et al [ 15 ] found out that honors students (those with a high school GPA of 3.75 out of 4.00) studying in a first-year university program achieved higher sustainability knowledge score compared with general student population. Honors students have the highest academic performance, highest graduation rates and shortest time to degree completion when compared to non-honors students [ 20 ]. It is expected such students to have more intrinsic motivation and potential personal interest in sustainability, which may explain why higher achievers outperformed the students with lower GPAs in this study as well. The last variable assessed on students’ literacy levels was their familiarity with the term “sustainability”. When they were asked whether they heard the term before, those who said “yes” scored significantly higher in all aspects of the questionnaire. Their knowledge, skills, attitudes and familiarity with sustainability related terms and concepts were higher than those students who said they did not hear the word before. Another important detail regarding this variable is the source of their exposure to the word. More than half of the students said they heard the word “sustainability” on social media. University courses and lectures also were selected by 48% of the participants, which shows the term sustainability has started making being mentioned by university faculty or the curriculum designed by them. This is an interesting finding since the participants are only first year students and students are not offered a course named Sustainability in the first year. The only mandatory course that may expose students to sustainability is Environmental Biology (BIOL 103) that has the following course description on the website: Examines the organization of natural ecosystem as it relates to the human community. Basic ecological principles are applied to current environmental issues. Among the topics to be examined are past and present uses and abuses of natural resources; environmental ethics and public policy; global environmental problems; human population growth; pollution; waste disposal; habitat loss; species extinction; and strategies for attaining a sustainable earth. This is the only course in the university course catalogue that has the word sustainability in its course description, which may mean if students heard the word before, they probably took this course or the instructors of other courses they have taken have selected teaching materials that have included the topic of sustainability. However, exposure to the word through social media is also mentioned in Sharp et al.’s study [ 42 ]. Young participants in their focus group emphasized their exposure to social media and the fact that mainstream Kuwaiti media ignores climate change. They explained that their use of social media made them more aware of climate change incidents such as the wildfires in Australia, the climate change activist Greta Thunberg which encourage them to get more involved with climate change. There has been a dramatic increase in social media usage among young people. Social media has also changed every aspect of our life, however, the influence of social media on the younger generation’s behaviors regarding sustainability is hardly discussed in the literature. Some studies have started analyzing how young people’s consumption habits have changed with social media. For example, Xie and Madni [ 49 ] found that information shared on social media via blogs, opinions, news, and advertisement have an impact on young people to go for green purchases and green consumption. Nekmahmud et al., [ 35 ] suggest social media plays a crucial role in shaping consumers' purchasing intentions for green products and services, which could result in sustainable consumption practices. The qualitative part of the study found out that students are quite familiar with environmental problems of the country they are living in, such as pollution (air, water, sea), littering and climate change being the most urgent ones. Some students also expressed scarcity of the resources such as water and land of Kuwait and loss of biodiversity (mainly because of pollution) as major environmental sustainability challenges. In the economic pillar, some students indicated Kuwait’s dependence on oil as the only income as a sustainability problem. The social sustainability problems were identified by a few students only, with some of them mentioning health and wellbeing issues (mental health, obesity, and respiratory problems) and some others mentioning the low quality of the infrastructure in the country (mostly motorways & roads). It would not be wrong to say that participants were able to identify the environmental problems of their country accurately, which are easy to observe. This finding is consistent with the other findings in the literature which suggest that students are more familiar with environmental sustainability [52; 24; 37]. Interestingly, not only students, but also researchers largely focus on environmental domain, failing to address the economic and social domains [ 53 ], the reason for this unbalance is that the environmental dimension is easier to understand and observe, compared to economic and social sustainability. Environmental sustainability is a straightforward term, sustainable use consists of withdrawing the resource at a rate equal to or less than the rate of replacement whereas examples of economic and socially sustainability may vary based on an individual’s political, ideological, or even cultural values (in case of gender equality in religious societies). However, in Sharp et al.’s study [ 42 ] when participants were asked about the problems they were experiencing in Kuwait, they brough up issues such as gender equality, the harassment of women and corruption, their frustration at being silenced by the older generation and the government’s focus on ‘the economy’ rather than quality of life. However, these social sustainability issues did not emerge as a result of the content analysis of the essays in the qualitative part of the study. Kuwait has indeed some serious issues other than the environmental ones, as per the Sustainable Development Report, by UN [ 41 ]. In gender inequality (SDG 5) Kuwait scores particularly low in indicators such as ‘ratio of female-to-male labor force participation’ and ‘seats held by women in national parliament’. Kuwaiti women face challenges in social, cultural, and political arenas [ 13 ] which hinder their participating in the socio-political development of Kuwait. Corruption is also defined as a significant challenge indicator in the UN Report, which has become an existential threat to the country, so much so that it has “become a staple of governance and a feature of everyday life in Kuwait” [ 9 ]. The reason why these challenges were not brought up in a sustainability essay could also be related to the students’ lack of sustainability knowledge to the extent that some university students strongly associate recycling and sustainable living, and in many cases, believe these two concepts to be the same thing [ 18 ]. The participants in our study were also not aware of the economic and social pillars of sustainability. Colantonio [ 19 ] suggests social sustainability has recently gained recognition as a fundamental component of sustainable development, with the notions of governance, social capital, and corporate social responsibility. However, despite social capital is often included in sustainable development policies, the implementation of this concept is still limited. The only way to ensure that an effort, policy, or society sustains over time, is to ensure that it does not negatively impact the environment, the economy, or the social well-being of those involved. The Brundtland definition of sustainability recognizes three separate, but intertwined, dimensions. To be able to move towards a sustainable society, this interdisciplinary field must grow to include the social and economic domains. To ensure the long-term sustainability of any endeavor, policy, or society, it is crucial to prevent any detrimental effects on the environment, economy, and social well-being of the individuals involved. The concept of sustainability, as defined by the Brundtland Commission, acknowledges these three distinct yet interconnected dimensions. In order to progress towards a sustainable society, it is imperative for this interdisciplinary field to expand its focus to encompass the social and economic aspects. Conclusions & Recommendations This study measured the sustainability literacy of first year students enrolled in a writing course in Kuwait. Gender, high school type, GPA value and previous exposure to sustainability caused significant differences in students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes about sustainability. Undergraduate students were able to identify the environmental challenges Kuwait was experiencing, such as pollution, littering and global warming and offered viable solutions to these problems including switching to alternative energy sources, passing laws to cut down on emissions and imposing sanctions on violators of these laws. Raising awareness among the public was an important solution proposed by the students participating in the study. However, the participants were not able to list many social sustainability challenges and the only economic sustainability challenge they brought up was diversification of the country’s income and the solution was breaking its over reliance on oil. Sustainability literacy and awareness seem quite low among the participants, particularly among public school graduates. Undergraduate students who are active users of the social media seem to be keeping themselves updated with the latest developments in their country regarding environmental issues, however, there seems to be a low interest in social and economic sustainability issues. Sustainability has not been given priority in the educational agenda of Kuwait. A cursory examination of course descriptions in the university catalogue revealed only one course that includes sustainability, which focuses solely on the environmental aspect. Without a strategic implementation of sustainability in curricula, only a limited number of students are likely to choose sustainability-related courses during their undergraduate studies. This indicates the need for institutions to incorporate sustainability education across all programs and years of schooling (16). To effectively carry out sustainability initiatives, higher education institutions require adequate resources and governance frameworks. They should train their faculty, develop learning materials, and provide practical guidelines to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. When educational institutions recognize the value of sustainability education, composition instructors can play a crucial role in promoting sustainability. However, instructors often lack knowledge of sustainability concepts and have limited experience in teaching sustainability [33; 42; 22]. To address this, faculty members need to be prepared to integrate sustainability issues into their writing curriculum. During training, teachers should learn how to incorporate environmental, social, and economic issues into their subject matter and be encouraged to develop activities that facilitate integrated teaching [27; 37; 28]. It is important to note that this study was conducted on a small number of students, so the results may not be representative of the overall knowledge level of undergraduate students in the country. The data collected focused on students' knowledge and familiarity with sustainability at the time of data collection, and the essays were written within a limited timeframe and based on a specific prompt, limiting the students' flexibility to explore various sustainability issues in their country. However, the study still provides valuable insights into the perceptions and awareness levels of undergraduate students regarding sustainability. Higher education institutions should recognize their unique role in addressing significant global challenges and equip their students with sustainability awareness and literacy based on competence, enabling them to become agents of change in solving environmental, social, and economic issues for current and future generations. Abbreviations AASHE the American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education ESD Education for Sustainable Development HEIs higher education institutions GCC Gulf Cooperation Council KNDP Kuwait National Development Plan GPA grade point average SDGs Sustainable Development Goals STARS Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System Declarations Availability of data and material: Exxx, Ixx Dxx (2023), “Sustainability experimental”, Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/fhny7btkg7.1 Competing interests: The author declares that they have no competing interests. Authors' contributions: IDE as the sole author of this manuscript wrote the literature review, collected and analyzed the data and produced the discussion section of the manuscript. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board of G..University for S & T (Case number 278674). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. References Al Beeshi, A., Alsulaili, A., & Al-Fadhli, F. (2020). Food waste management in Kuwait: Current situation and future needs. 5th Eurasia waste management symposium, 26–28 October 2020, Istanbul, Turkey: Proceedings. https://www.eurasiasymposium.com/EWMS/files/Hall2/Session-6/167_Alsulaili-14.pdf Al Felaij, B. (2016). Why integrating technology has been unsuccessful in Kuwait? An exploratory study. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3624454","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":266234693,"identity":"7a03e5fd-d411-46b4-ad34-532374b20752","order_by":0,"name":"Inan Deniz Erguvan","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA5ElEQVRIie3OMQrCMBTG8ScFuzzq2lDQK0S6CBa8SkTo1NlJUBCcxFlv4RGEgFkylxYd7KKzi1QQ8SkuOkTdHPKHhG/5wQOw2f46NXqOFThfEr2iT/xEMvElqQUqDXCwBS8/pOxcQt3LhBOigbBZ0g9wvQe2uQ8BISPSMxGuMWbzqgS+SeKADusuicjEQDoPciWS65iVAoYfCUd37R8nRDIadJjg98NMxNfotI4ziUwnThtjv7nQxTi8GEht6haZOMm6p1SRl1HU8FRPsrmBACB//M/h06uMjADA3b0Pm81ms712A/v9TWQlY6DsAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC","orcid":"","institution":"Gulf University for Science \u0026 Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Inan","middleName":"Deniz","lastName":"Erguvan","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-11-17 07:59:26","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":49470442,"identity":"42e2aae6-ed12-4490-8d02-4b66ce1cdde4","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-11 11:24:45","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":355797,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3624454/v1/ec92baef-ee25-4f9b-b836-ebf507161cb1.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Assessing the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Introduction","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe concept of sustainability has been around for quite some time; however, it started gaining significant attention in the post-Industrial Revolution due to factors like population growth, increased consumption, and the realization that essential resources like wood, coal, and oil could be exhausted. This awareness led to a growing understanding of the importance of utilizing resources in a sustainable manner. Concerns about the ability of both current and future generations to maintain their living standards prompted a shift in thinking, ultimately leading to the rise and acceptance of the concept of sustainable development [25].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the beginning, sustainability primarily emphasized the environmental aspect, with researchers considering it to be of greater significance compared to other dimensions. However, over time, the economic and social dimensions began to receive similar recognition and interest from researchers. As a result, the concept of sustainability expanded to encompass three pillars: the social, economic, and environmental [38].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe worldwide initiatives to redefine sustainability began after the inaugural UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, which focused on addressing environmental issues. Various definitions of sustainable development have emerged, but the most cited one is from the Brundtland Report, also known as Our Common Future, published in 1987, according to which, \u0026quot;Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs\u0026quot; [16].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe United Nations\u0026apos; 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, which comprises 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), represents a significant effort to address the intricate global challenges of our time. These challenges include the destruction of ecosystems, species extinction, depletion and degradation of vital resources, various forms of pollution, and widespread extreme poverty affecting millions of people.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eScientists argue that our lack of awareness regarding the limits of Earth\u0026apos;s resources has greatly contributed to the occurrence of these challenges. Thus, education is critical to achieving the world\u0026rsquo;s sustainable development (SD). The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework, a roadmap for institutions and educators to reform curricula and pedagogies around sustainability principles, is utilized by numerous universities worldwide [50]. ESD has gained political and institutional support in many parts of the world recognizing the fact that promoting sustainability literacy can foster innovative solutions to global problems.\u0026nbsp;Thus, education is a critical tool for achieving sustainability goals and can help us create a more sustainable world by empowering individuals and communities to take action and make informed decisions that protect the environment and promote social and economic development.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe concepts of sustainability and sustainability literacy have emerged recently in academic literature and practical endeavors. These ideas continue to evolve because of the advancements in environmental, economic, and social domains. Sustainability literacy is defined by the UN [48]\u0026nbsp;as \u0026ldquo;the knowledge, skills, and mindsets that allow individuals to become deeply committed to building a sustainable future and assisting in making informed and effective decisions to this end.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIt is widely agreed that higher education institutions (HEIs) should support sustainable development through research and activism. \u0026nbsp;HEIs have a responsibility to teach sustainability literacy and produce environmentally conscious citizens, given their ability to shape students\u0026apos; attitudes and perspectives [46]. According to Leal Filho [32], the university cannot excuse itself from meeting one of the most significant challenges of humanity. ESD is most crucial at the university stage because students will soon pursue careers in diverse professions, and they will need to know what impact their professions can have in solving sustainability problems.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSustainability and sustainable development are interdisciplinary concepts that might lend themselves easily to composition studies, that serves a cross-disciplinarity function in students\u0026apos; academic lives. Composition instructors have more leverage for encouraging students to explore a variety of themes than academics who teach in more specialized areas [39].\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis research was conducted to assess the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course and use this finding as a baseline to make a needs assessment that is highly needed to be able integrate sustainability into the writing curriculum and pedagogy in the department.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe main research questions that will guide the study are:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1.\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;Do students have different levels of sustainability literacy according to their personal variables, such as gender, high school type, grade point average (GPA) in their studies and their exposure to the concept of sustainability before?\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp; Are students able to identify major sustainability challenges their country of residence is facing and offer solutions to overcome these challenges?\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Background","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eSustainability Literacy\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe belief that a sustainable future necessitates a society equipped with sustainability knowledge has prompted organizations from various fields to prioritize educational efforts aimed at enhancing people's understanding of sustainability. In recent years, international organizations, cities, private businesses, and particularly higher education institutions have placed significant emphasis on the importance of sustainability education. This increased focus on sustainability education has also sparked a renewed interest in creating a reliable measure of sustainability knowledge and literacy.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeveral approaches have been attempted to develop a valid assessment tool for sustainability literacy. One notable example is the Sulitest (Sustainability Literacy Tools \u0026amp; Community), which was established after the Rio\u0026thinsp;+\u0026thinsp;20 Conference [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e23\u003c/span\u003e]. Sullitest is an online platform consisting of a standardized set of multiple-choice questions that can be used globally, along with specialized modules that consider specific national, regional, and cultural contexts D\u0026eacute;camps et al. [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR23\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e23\u003c/span\u003e] outlined the structure of this tool and highlighted its potential for measuring sustainability literacy on a global scale, recommending its adoption by educational institutions.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSimilarly, Zwickle et al. [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR54\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e54\u003c/span\u003e] developed a web-based survey tool to assess the sustainability knowledge of undergraduate students at Ohio State University, involving 1,000 participants and featuring 16 multiple-choice questions. In the United States, the American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE) Sustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System (STARS) was introduced in 2010 and has seen participation from over a thousand institutions by 2022. STARS evaluate the sustainability efforts of colleges and universities in the United States and reward institutions that offer a greater number of sustainability-related courses or even require students to complete at least one sustainability course as part of their general education requirements [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR17\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e17\u003c/span\u003e]. The participating institution assesses the sustainability literacy of its students, focusing on the knowledge of sustainability topics and challenges.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAs higher education institutions and society at large increasingly prioritize the importance of individuals' comprehension of sustainability, the need for accurate assessments of sustainability knowledge becomes more significant. The development of improved measures of sustainability knowledge is expected to enhance sustainability education and, in the long run, foster a population with higher levels of sustainability literacy [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR30\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e30\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eSustainability Efforts and Literacy in Kuwait\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eKuwait is one of the wealthiest countries in the world due to the revenues generated from the oil sector. The country enjoys an abundance of wealth from the oil sector which make up more than 90% of Kuwait\u0026rsquo;s export earnings, a dependence that makes it difficult to diversify the economy and develop other industries that are less reliant on fossil fuels [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR26\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e26\u003c/span\u003e]. Kuwait faces several challenges in achieving sustainability which are mainly resulting from the country's heavy reliance on oil revenues [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR7\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e]. Some of the major environmental challenges Kuwait faces include air pollution, water scarcity, and waste management. The country has high levels of air pollution due to its petro-chemical industry activities and transportation. Water scarcity is also a significant issue in Kuwait, as the country relies on desalination plants to meet its water needs. Despite this, Kuwaitis consume 520 litres of freshwater per capita per day, one of the highest in the world [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e31\u003c/span\u003e]. Waste management is another challenge, with large amounts of waste generated in the country due to high mass consumption, that require proper disposal and recycling [12; 29]. Currently, the consumptions of water and energy, and the production of waste per capita in Kuwait are among the highest in the world.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe nation has introduced several endeavours to advance sustainable development, and the most notable one is the Kuwait National Development Plan (KNDP), which serves as a roadmap for sustainable development within Kuwait. The KNDP places emphasis on the significance of economic, social, and environmental sustainability, establishing targets for reducing carbon emissions, enhancing waste management, and promoting renewable energy [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR31\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e31\u003c/span\u003e]. Other institutions involved in these efforts include the Kuwait Green Building Council and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences, which has developed initiatives such as the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research and the Kuwait Green Energy Forum. The State of Kuwait officially adopted the SDGs in September 2015 and subsequently integrated them into its Vision 2035 plan. As a result of these initiatives, Kuwait currently holds the 101st rank among 163 countries, with an overall score of 64.53 [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR40\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e40\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDespite the introduction of these initiatives, there remains a deficiency in the implementation of sustainable practices by government agencies, as well as a lack of sustainable awareness among the public. Although only a limited number of studies have been conducted in this field, the prevailing message in most of them underscores the need for greater awareness of sustainability in Kuwait. For instance, a study conducted by Al Qattan and Gray [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR8\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e8\u003c/span\u003e] found that government policies and practices are insufficient in addressing pollution, particularly in Kuwaiti waters. Similarly, Al Sanad's study [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR10\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e10\u003c/span\u003e] revealed that a lack of awareness serves as the primary obstacle to the adoption of sustainable construction approaches in Kuwait. The study further emphasized the necessity for the Kuwaiti government to take the initiative in introducing standards, policies, and incentives to promote sustainability in the country. Other studies highlighted the general public's limited awareness regarding sustainable waste management practices in Kuwait, as well as the absence of municipal strategies for waste prevention, reduction, and recycling [29; 11; 1]. In short, while there is a growing recognition of sustainability among businesses in Kuwait and efforts from the government to foster sustainability, there remains a requirement for increased awareness and implementation of sustainable practices. Additionally, there is a need for stronger action to tackle the country's dependence on oil and to actively promote a more sustainable future.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThere is a lack of research conducted on the assessment of sustainability literacy or awareness among undergraduate students in Kuwait, with the only existing studies in the literature focusing on the environmental literacy of teachers or the public. One study examined science teachers in secondary schools in Kuwait and found low levels of environmental literacy among them [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR28\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e28\u003c/span\u003e]. Another study evaluated the environmental awareness of high school teachers, revealing that 60% of the teachers exhibited a high level of environmental concerns. These concerns were observed to increase with age, years of experience, the education level of their spouse, having children, and being non-Kuwaiti [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR14\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e14\u003c/span\u003e]. A more recent study investigated the awareness of climate change and its impact on Kuwaiti society, indicating that climate change is not extensively discussed or deeply engaged with in the country [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]. The researchers demonstrated that the coverage of climate change in Kuwaiti media and school curricula is limited, government officials lack substantial knowledge on the subject, and there is generally weak awareness among the public. However, young people between the ages of 15 and 24 express greater concern about climate change compared to the older generation, primarily due to their use of social media [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThis research is significant as it represents the pioneering sustainability-focused study conducted within a higher education institution in Kuwait. As a result, the findings from this study are expected to make a noteworthy contribution to the field of sustainability education, specifically in higher education institutions in Kuwait and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. By shedding light on the current state of sustainability awareness and practices among undergraduate students, this research has the potential to shape and guide future efforts in sustainability education. Furthermore, the outcomes of this study may serve as a foundation for the development of sustainable education strategies, policies, and initiatives, not only in Kuwait but also in neighboring GCC countries, fostering a culture of sustainability within higher education institutions across the region.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3. Methodology","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study has a mixed-method sequential explanatory design, which implies collecting and analyzing quantitative and then qualitative data in two consecutive phases in one study. Using mixed methods helps to provide a more comprehensive framework of the phenomenon by enabling rich and informative data and to validate and triangulate the data by analyzing the same issue through both quantitative and qualitative methods [21; 45].\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eResearch Population\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe research population is the first-year composition students enrolled in the course in Fall 2022. In the quantitative part, 221 completed the survey. The demographics of the participants in the quantitative part could be seen in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e, below:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003ePersonal characteristics of participants in the quantitative part\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"5\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"3\" morerows=\"1\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c5\" namest=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" morerows=\"1\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGender\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e131\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e59.3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e90\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40.7\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" morerows=\"3\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHigh school type\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAbroad\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrivate (Arabic/ Bilingual)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e39\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17.6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrivate (International)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e49\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e22.2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePublic (Arabic)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e122\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e55.2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" morerows=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGrade Point Average (GPA)\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e(Out of 4.00)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBelow 2.00\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e54\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24.4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBetween 2.00 and 3.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e95\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e43.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.00 and above\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e32.6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" morerows=\"1\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHave you heard the term sustainability before?\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e168\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e76.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNo\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e53\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTOTAL\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e221\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e100\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003ePersonal characteristics of participants in the quantitative part\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA total of 221 students participated in the quantitative section, with 131 girls and 90 boys. 55.2% are graduates of public high schools and have an average grade point of between 2.00 and 3.00 (43%). 76% of them said they had heard of the word \u003cem\u003esustainability\u003c/em\u003e before, and the source of this information was 52% social media and 48% university course or textbook, as seen in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eWhere the participants heard about sustainability\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e \u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv align=\"char\" char=\".\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cthead\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSource of information\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003en\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e%\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/thead\u003e \u003ctbody\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSocial media/ internet\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e116\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e52.5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eUniversity course / lecture / course book\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e106\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e48.0\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTV/ Radio/ Newpaper\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e43\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e19.5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003ctr\u003e \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eConference, seminar\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e15.4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e \u003c/tr\u003e \u003c/tbody\u003e \u003c/colgroup\u003e \u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eWhere the participants heard about sustainability\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor the qualitative part of the study, the researcher collected essays from students at the end of the Fall semester of 2022 from the same groups of students. The research population consisted of students from all sections who agreed to write an essay on the sustainability issues of Kuwait, which totaled up to 60 students.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eData Collection\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe quantitative phase of the study involved gathering data using an adapted version of the Sustainability Literacy Assessment, which was originally developed by a committee at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh for assessing the university's sustainability performance within the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment \u0026amp; Rating System (STARS) framework [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR47\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e47\u003c/span\u003e]. The assessment form consisted of four sections, which included five multiple-choice questions to measure knowledge levels, as well as Likert scale questions to evaluate students' self-reported skills, attitudes, and familiarity with various sustainability topics and concepts. The research obtained Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval with the assigned case number 278674. A total of 221 students completed the questionnaire. The Cronbach's Alpha reliability scores for the different sections of the data collection tool are 0.84 for Skills, 0.72 for Attitudes and 0.92 for Familiarity with topics and concepts.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDuring the qualitative data collection phase, students were instructed to write an essay in which they identified the primary sustainability challenge faced by Kuwait and proposed potential solutions to address this issue. This activity took place within a 50-minute class session, with the instructor present to provide supervision. Students were required to sign a consent form and were informed that the essay would not be graded but solely collected for research purposes. The essays were written on computers as per the designated setup.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eData Analysis\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eQuantitative data analysis was performed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows 25.0 software. Descriptive statistical methods, such as numbers, percentages, minimum-maximum values, median, mean, and standard deviation, were utilized. Chi-square analysis was applied to test the homogeneity of groups. The data were assessed for compatibility with normal distribution using Q-Q Plot, examining skewness and kurtosis values (\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;3).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFor comparing quantitative data in normally distributed sets, independent t-test was employed to analyze differences between two independent groups, while dependent t-test was used for comparisons between two dependent stages. One-way ANOVA was employed for comparing more than two independent groups. Bonferroni was used when there was a statistically significant difference among groups.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe data obtained in the qualitative research were examined both qualitatively and quantitatively. Student essays were imported into the MAXQDA 2022 software for analysis. The quantitative content analysis was conducted using the MaxDictio function of the software for demonstrating the most frequent words and word combinations in the essay. The qualitative content analysis adopted a combination of inductive and deductive approaches. The researcher carefully reviewed the data multiple times and generated initial codes. Codes that were related to each other were grouped under relevant themes and labelled accordingly. Subsequently, the obtained themes were explained in detail. Finally, the researcher interpreted the findings and supported them with various visual representations.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4. Results","content":"\u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eResearch Question 1\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe first research question of the study investigated whether students have different levels of sustainability literacy according to their personal variables, such as gender, high school type, GPA in their studies and their exposure to the concept of sustainability before.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo investigate the participants’ scores based on their demographic characteristics, an independent t-test comparing two independent groups, and one-way analysis of variance was conducted comparing more than two independent groups were conducted which could be seen in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c5\" colnum=\"5\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c6\" colnum=\"6\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c7\" colnum=\"7\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c8\" colnum=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c9\" colnum=\"9\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c10\" colnum=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDifference analysis results according to variables\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"10\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" morerows=\"1\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eVariables\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKnowledge\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSkills\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAttitudes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTopics \u0026amp; concepts\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\stackrel{-}{\\varvec{X}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSd\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\stackrel{-}{\\varvec{X}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSd\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\stackrel{-}{\\varvec{X}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSd\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"InlineEquation\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"mathinline\"\u003e\\(\\stackrel{-}{\\varvec{X}}\\)\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSd\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGender\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFemale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.26\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.37\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.71\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.57\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMale\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.42\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.34\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.84\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.71\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.98\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.78\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTest value\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e-1.020**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.287**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.406**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.977**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.309\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.774\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.161\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.049*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"6\" rowspan=\"7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHigh school type\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eAbroad (1)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.09\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.83\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.75\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.42\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.73\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.63\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrivate (Arabic/ Bilingual) (2)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.36\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.25\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.88\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.78\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.56\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.64\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePrivate (International) (3)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.65\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.39\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.50\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.74\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.73\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.81\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePublic (Arabic) (4)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.75\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.57\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.96\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.78\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTest value\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.412***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.087***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.324***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4.422***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.005*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.103\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.268\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.005*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBonferroni\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1 \u0026gt; 4, 3 \u0026gt; 4\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e1 \u0026gt; 4\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"5\" rowspan=\"6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGPA value\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBelow 2.00 (1)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.87\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.01\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.70\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.54\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.59\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.02\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.58\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBetween 2.00 and 3.0 (2)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.33\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.09\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.40\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.72\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.75\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.60\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.75\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.00 and above (3)\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.67\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.44\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.86\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.64\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.69\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.85\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTest value\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7.645***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.324***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.998***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.455***\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.001*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.100\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.138\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.635\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBonferroni\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e3 \u0026gt; 1\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"3\" rowspan=\"4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhether they heard sustainability before\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eYes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.48\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.46\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.70\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.74\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.65\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.71\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eNo\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.83\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1.05\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.03\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.88\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.42\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.51\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2.83\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c10\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e0.81\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eTest value\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.651**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.636**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.259**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3.063**\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ep\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c4\" namest=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.000*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c6\" namest=\"c5\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.000*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c8\" namest=\"c7\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.001*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c10\" namest=\"c9\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e0.002*\u003c/b\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003ctfoot\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd colspan=\"10\"\u003e*p \u0026lt; 0.05, **Independent t-test, ***One-way analysis of variance\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tfoot\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab3\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eDifference analysis results according to variables\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA statistically significant difference was observed in the scores of the participants' familiarity with topics \u0026amp; concepts based on their genders (p \u0026lt; 0.05), which demonstrated that female participants had higher scores in familiarity with topics \u0026amp; concepts compared to male participants.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eA statistically significant difference was detected in the knowledge scores and familiarity with topics \u0026amp; concepts scores based on the type of high school attended by the participants (p \u0026lt; 0.05). When Bonferroni correction was applied to determine the differentiating group, it was seen that participants who studied high school abroad and in a \"Private (International)\" had higher scores in knowledge compared to participants from the \"Public (Arabic)\" high school type. Participants from the \"Abroad\" high school type also had higher scores in familiarity with topics \u0026amp; concepts compared to participants from the \"Public (Arabic)\" high school type.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eParticipants' GPA values also yielded a statistically significant difference in the knowledge scores (p \u0026lt; 0.05). Bonferroni correction result demonstrate that the differentiating group was the participants with a GPA value of 3.00 and above who had higher scores in knowledge compared to participants with a GPA value below 2.00.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhether the participants had previously heard the term \"sustainability\" (p \u0026lt; 0.05) resulted in a statistically significant difference in the scores of knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with topics \u0026amp; concepts. Participants who had heard the term \"sustainability\" had scored higher than those who had not heard the term in all sections of the questionnaire.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eHowever, it should also be added that regardless of the personal variables, the knowledge score among the participants is quite low, the highest score obtained out of 5 is 2 (by graduates of high schools abroad) and the lowest is 0.8 (by participants who never heard sustainability before and those who have a GPA below 2).\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cb\u003eResearch Question 2\u003c/b\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe second research question of the study analyzed whether students were able to identify major sustainability challenges Kuwait is facing and offer solutions to overcome these challenges both quantitatively and qualitatively.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the quantitative content analysis, the word frequency function of MaxDictio was used to scan the student essays for the most frequently used words in student essays and the results for the most frequent 15 words are displayed in Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 4\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e15 most frequent words in student essays\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWord\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrequency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDocuments\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenvironment\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e226\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e36\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecar\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e131\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e31\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eoil\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e122\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e29\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epollution\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e90\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eair\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e85\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efactory\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e64\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e20\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eclean\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e46\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003epollute\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e32\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eweather\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e40\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eplastic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e51\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenergy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e49\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ehealthy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e21\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e13\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ewater\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e54\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eeconomic\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e45\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003etrash\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e38\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e12\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e4\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2\u003e15. most frequent words in student essays\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe most frequent words show a clear tendency for environmental problems, and particularly a pollution problem, resulting from oil and the country’s dependence on cars. When we look at the top 5 words with frequencies and the number of student essays mentioning these words, environment, car, oil, pollution, and air give us a clear picture of the country’s biggest challenge.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTo be able to understand what these may mean in a larger context, MaxDictio was run again for word combinations and the word combinations with a frequency of 4 and above are shown below:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab5\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 5\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eFrequent word combinations in student essays\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eWord combination\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrequency\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDocuments\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003efossil fuel\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e27\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eair pollution\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e24\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eglobal warming\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e18\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003esolar energy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e17\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003erenewable energy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e14\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eelectric car\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenvironmental sustainability\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003emarine pollution\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eplastic straw\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003esustainable source\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003emental health\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eair quality\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e3\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecar accident\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003erenewable resource\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ecarbon emission\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eenvironmental pollution\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eFrequent word combinations in student essays\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eAccording to Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab5\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e, the most frequently used word combination was fossil fuel by 27 times and in 4 essays. Air pollution was the 2nd most frequent word combination with 24 frequency and 7 essays. Global warming is another frequent word combination with 18 frequency and 7 essays. The list shows that except for mental health and car accidents, all the word combinations are related to the environmental dimension of sustainability, which shows students who participated in the qualitative data collection were aware of the environmental challenges their country is facing but did not think social and economic challenges were as important.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab6\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 6\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe codes of sustainability problems in student essays\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCodes of Problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrequency of codes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEconomic Sustainability Problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eOverdependence on oil\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e10\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDonating money to other countries\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSocial Sustainability Problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eHealth \u0026amp; Wellbeing\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e- Mental health\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e- Obesity\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e- Car accidents\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e- Respiratory problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e- Heat related problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLack of quality infrastructure\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiscrimination \u0026amp; Inequality\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e6\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental Sustainability Problems\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ePollution \u0026amp; Littering\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e46\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eClimate change \u0026amp; Global warming\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLoss of biodiversity\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e2\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eLimited resources\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSUM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e98\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe codes of sustainability problems in student essays\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e shows the results of the qualitative content analysis investigating student perspectives of the major sustainability challenges in Kuwait. According to the results, dependence on oil and donating money to other countries are the major issue in the economic area. Social sustainability issues in Kuwait as per student views could be listed as health \u0026amp; wellbeing problems (mental health, obesity, traffic accidents, respiratory, and heat related problems), lack of quality infrastructure, and discrimination and human rights issues in Kuwait. In the environmental dimension, pollution and littering was the most frequently mentioned problem, followed by climate change. Loss of biodiversity and scarcity of resources were the other two major environmental sustainability challenges as per student essays.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the same data collection tool, students were also asked to propose solutions to the major sustainability challenge they identified. The table below shows the codes of these solutions in the student essays.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003c/p\u003e\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c1\" colnum=\"1\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c2\" colnum=\"2\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c3\" colnum=\"3\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003cdiv align=\"left\" class=\"colspec\" colname=\"c4\" colnum=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab7\" border=\"1\"\u003e\u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 7\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe codes of sustainability solutions in student essays\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/caption\u003e\u003ccolgroup cols=\"4\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\u003cthead\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eCodes of Solutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eFrequency of Codes\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/th\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/thead\u003e\u003ctbody\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEconomic Sustainability Solutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eDiversifying revenues\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c3\" namest=\"c2\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSocial Sustainability Solutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eImproving the infrastructure\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFighting malnutrition \u0026amp; obesity\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eMore efficient government \u0026amp; institutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eEnvironmental Sustainability Solutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e4\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSwitching to clean energy\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e23\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eRaising awareness\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e16\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eImposing fine \u0026amp; penalty on violators\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e11\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eConserving \u0026amp; Recycling\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eImproving public transportation\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eBetter waste management\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e8\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eMoving industry outside residential areas\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003ePlanting trees\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eLaws to reduce carbon emissions\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTax \u0026amp; Price increase on oil\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e7\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e5\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e1\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003ctr\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSUM\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e \u003cp\u003e117\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/td\u003e\u003c/tr\u003e\u003c/tbody\u003e\u003c/table\u003e\u003c/div\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e \u003cem\u003eThe codes of sustainability solutions in student essays\u003c/em\u003e \u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eTable\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab7\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e7\u003c/span\u003e displays the content analysis and the frequencies of the solutions participants have expressed in their essays. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab6\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e showed a clear tendency for students to emphasize the environmental problems their country is experiencing, likewise this table shows the students’ priority as solutions to the environmental problems in the country. Oil industry, carbon emissions from fossil fuels and overall pollution and littering were seen as the major problems by students, thus, their solutions target these problem areas. Switching to clean energy such as electric cars and solar energy is the most frequently mentioned solution by students. The 2nd most frequent solution is raising awareness, which is closely followed by imposing penalties on violators.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn the economic area, overdependence on oil as the country’s only income was identified as a major problem, hence, seeing diversification of country’s revenues as a frequent solution in the economic sustainability area is not surprising.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSocial sustainability solutions are mainly limited to improving the infrastructure (particularly roads \u0026amp; motorways) and implementing a more efficient decision-making system in the governmental institutions.\u003c/p\u003e "},{"header":"5. Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe findings of the study reveal that students’ personal characteristics have resulted in statistically significant differences in their sustainability related knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with sustainability. Female students were more familiar with sustainability than male students. The high school type played a role in participant scores, with graduates of High School Abroad and private schools (with American or British Curriculum) scoring better than public school graduates in the knowledge test and familiarity. Students with a higher GPA (3 and above) scored higher in the knowledge test than those with a GPA 2 and below. Also, participants who reported they had heard of the term sustainability before, scored significantly higher than those who had not in all sections of the questionnaire.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe results of the quantitative analysis are aligned with other studies in literature. For example, gender is one of the variables that made a difference in student perception in environmental and sustainability related topics. According to other scholars, women tend to exhibit stronger environmental attitudes and behaviors compared to men and display a higher level of sustainability-related attitudes [43; 51; 3]. The researchers attribute these disparities to gender socialization. Women are generally reported to be more concerned with environmental welfare than men and this lack of concern (and/or perhaps even knowledge) may lead to a dismissal of such topic question by men in studies [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR44\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e44\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe type of high school students graduated from also played a role in different perceptions and knowledge scores of students. Students who completed high school abroad or graduated from a private international school in Kuwait had higher scores than the graduates of public schools and private schools with a bilingual education. Across all sections of the questionnaire, public school graduates consistently scored the lowest. This underperformance could be attributed to the fact that Kuwait's education system falls significantly below international standards. Research conducted by Al Hashem and Al Kandari [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR6\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e6\u003c/span\u003e] on Kuwait's low performance in TIMSS assessments over the past 20 years revealed inefficiencies in the education system, including an inadequate curriculum, insufficient teacher training, ineffective pedagogical methods, and assessment tools that fail to meet students' needs. Al Hashem [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR5\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e5\u003c/span\u003e] also highlights the social capital gap in education between public and private schools in Kuwait, spanning from early stages to higher education. She emphasizes the need for interventions targeting students who have unqualified teachers and an outdated educational paradigm. To improve the education system, it is suggested to incorporate more technology, enhance the educational curriculum, and raise recruitment standards for teachers while focusing on their teaching skills [34; 2; 4]. A Kuwait-based study seems to confirm this gap between public and private school graduates [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]. The research involved conducting focus group interviews with students and graduates from both public and private Western schools. Participants from public schools emphasized the lack of climate change education in their curriculum. In contrast, those from private schools noted that climate change was partially covered in their curriculum and addressed through extracurricular activities such as after school clubs and events like 'Earth Day'.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAnother significant difference was observed between students with high (3.00 and above) and low (2.00 and below) GPA. Students with a higher academic performance scored higher in the knowledge test about sustainability. These students knew more about the definitions of sustainability and its three pillars, namely, environmental, economic, and social. It is not surprising that higher grades correlate with a higher level of sustainability literacy, since such students might be willing to invest more time into learning about the complex challenges of sustainable development. Briens et al [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR15\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e15\u003c/span\u003e] found out that honors students (those with a high school GPA of 3.75 out of 4.00) studying in a first-year university program achieved higher sustainability knowledge score compared with general student population. Honors students have the highest academic performance, highest graduation rates and shortest time to degree completion when compared to non-honors students [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR20\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e20\u003c/span\u003e]. It is expected such students to have more intrinsic motivation and potential personal interest in sustainability, which may explain why higher achievers outperformed the students with lower GPAs in this study as well.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe last variable assessed on students’ literacy levels was their familiarity with the term “sustainability”. When they were asked whether they heard the term before, those who said “yes” scored significantly higher in all aspects of the questionnaire. Their knowledge, skills, attitudes and familiarity with sustainability related terms and concepts were higher than those students who said they did not hear the word before. Another important detail regarding this variable is the source of their exposure to the word. More than half of the students said they heard the word “sustainability” on social media. University courses and lectures also were selected by 48% of the participants, which shows the term sustainability has started making being mentioned by university faculty or the curriculum designed by them. This is an interesting finding since the participants are only first year students and students are not offered a course named Sustainability in the first year. The only mandatory course that may expose students to sustainability is Environmental Biology (BIOL 103) that has the following course description on the website: \u003cem\u003eExamines the organization of natural ecosystem as it relates to the human community. Basic ecological principles are applied to current environmental issues. Among the topics to be examined are past and present uses and abuses of natural resources; environmental ethics and public policy; global environmental problems; human population growth; pollution; waste disposal; habitat loss; species extinction; and strategies for attaining a\u003c/em\u003e \u003cspan type=\"ItalicUnderline\" class=\"ItalicUnderline\" name=\"Emphasis\"\u003esustainable\u003c/span\u003e \u003cem\u003eearth.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is the only course in the university course catalogue that has the word sustainability in its course description, which may mean if students heard the word before, they probably took this course or the instructors of other courses they have taken have selected teaching materials that have included the topic of sustainability. However, exposure to the word through social media is also mentioned in Sharp et al.’s study [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e]. Young participants in their focus group emphasized their exposure to social media and the fact that mainstream Kuwaiti media ignores climate change. They explained that their use of social media made them more aware of climate change incidents such as the wildfires in Australia, the climate change activist Greta Thunberg which encourage them to get more involved with climate change.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere has been a dramatic increase in social media usage among young people. Social media has also changed every aspect of our life, however, the influence of social media on the younger generation’s behaviors regarding sustainability is hardly discussed in the literature. Some studies have started analyzing how young people’s consumption habits have changed with social media. For example, Xie and Madni [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR49\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e49\u003c/span\u003e] found that information shared on social media via blogs, opinions, news, and advertisement have an impact on young people to go for green purchases and green consumption. Nekmahmud et al., [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR35\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e35\u003c/span\u003e] suggest social media plays a crucial role in shaping consumers' purchasing intentions for green products and services, which could result in sustainable consumption practices.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe qualitative part of the study found out that students are quite familiar with environmental problems of the country they are living in, such as pollution (air, water, sea), littering and climate change being the most urgent ones. Some students also expressed scarcity of the resources such as water and land of Kuwait and loss of biodiversity (mainly because of pollution) as major environmental sustainability challenges. In the economic pillar, some students indicated Kuwait’s dependence on oil as the only income as a sustainability problem. The social sustainability problems were identified by a few students only, with some of them mentioning health and wellbeing issues (mental health, obesity, and respiratory problems) and some others mentioning the low quality of the infrastructure in the country (mostly motorways \u0026amp; roads).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt would not be wrong to say that participants were able to identify the environmental problems of their country accurately, which are easy to observe. This finding is consistent with the other findings in the literature which suggest that students are more familiar with environmental sustainability [52; 24; 37]. Interestingly, not only students, but also researchers largely focus on environmental domain, failing to address the economic and social domains [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR53\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e53\u003c/span\u003e], the reason for this unbalance is that the environmental dimension is easier to understand and observe, compared to economic and social sustainability. Environmental sustainability is a straightforward term, sustainable use consists of withdrawing the resource at a rate equal to or less than the rate of replacement whereas examples of economic and socially sustainability may vary based on an individual’s political, ideological, or even cultural values (in case of gender equality in religious societies).\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHowever, in Sharp et al.’s study [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR42\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e42\u003c/span\u003e] when participants were asked about the problems they were experiencing in Kuwait, they brough up issues such as gender equality, the harassment of women and corruption, their frustration at being silenced by the older generation and the government’s focus on ‘the economy’ rather than quality of life. However, these social sustainability issues did not emerge as a result of the content analysis of the essays in the qualitative part of the study.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKuwait has indeed some serious issues other than the environmental ones, as per the Sustainable Development Report, by UN [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR41\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e41\u003c/span\u003e]. In gender inequality (SDG 5) Kuwait scores particularly low in indicators such as ‘ratio of female-to-male labor force participation’ and ‘seats held by women in national parliament’. Kuwaiti women face challenges in social, cultural, and political arenas [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR13\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e13\u003c/span\u003e] which hinder their participating in the socio-political development of Kuwait. Corruption is also defined as a significant challenge indicator in the UN Report, which has become an existential threat to the country, so much so that it has “become a staple of governance and a feature of everyday life in Kuwait” [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR9\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e9\u003c/span\u003e].\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe reason why these challenges were not brought up in a sustainability essay could also be related to the students’ lack of sustainability knowledge to the extent that some university students strongly associate recycling and sustainable living, and in many cases, believe these two concepts to be the same thing [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR18\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e18\u003c/span\u003e]. The participants in our study were also not aware of the economic and social pillars of sustainability.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eColantonio [\u003cspan citationid=\"CR19\" class=\"CitationRef\"\u003e19\u003c/span\u003e] suggests social sustainability has recently gained recognition as a fundamental component of sustainable development, with the notions of governance, social capital, and corporate social responsibility. However, despite social capital is often included in sustainable development policies, the implementation of this concept is still limited.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe only way to ensure that an effort, policy, or society sustains over time, is to ensure that it does not negatively impact the environment, the economy, or the social well-being of those involved. The Brundtland definition of sustainability recognizes three separate, but intertwined, dimensions. To be able to move towards a sustainable society, this interdisciplinary field must grow to include the social and economic domains.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo ensure the long-term sustainability of any endeavor, policy, or society, it is crucial to prevent any detrimental effects on the environment, economy, and social well-being of the individuals involved. The concept of sustainability, as defined by the Brundtland Commission, acknowledges these three distinct yet interconnected dimensions. In order to progress towards a sustainable society, it is imperative for this interdisciplinary field to expand its focus to encompass the social and economic aspects.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Conclusions \u0026 Recommendations","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study measured the sustainability literacy of first year students enrolled in a writing course in Kuwait. Gender, high school type, GPA value and previous exposure to sustainability caused significant differences in students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes about sustainability. Undergraduate students were able to identify the environmental challenges Kuwait was experiencing, such as pollution, littering and global warming and offered viable solutions to these problems including switching to alternative energy sources, passing laws to cut down on emissions and imposing sanctions on violators of these laws. Raising awareness among the public was an important solution proposed by the students participating in the study. However, the participants were not able to list many social sustainability challenges and the only economic sustainability challenge they brought up was diversification of the country’s income and the solution was breaking its over reliance on oil.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSustainability literacy and awareness seem quite low among the participants, particularly among public school graduates. Undergraduate students who are active users of the social media seem to be keeping themselves updated with the latest developments in their country regarding environmental issues, however, there seems to be a low interest in social and economic sustainability issues.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSustainability has not been given priority in the educational agenda of Kuwait. A cursory examination of course descriptions in the university catalogue revealed only one course that includes sustainability, which focuses solely on the environmental aspect. Without a strategic implementation of sustainability in curricula, only a limited number of students are likely to choose sustainability-related courses during their undergraduate studies. This indicates the need for institutions to incorporate sustainability education across all programs and years of schooling (16). To effectively carry out sustainability initiatives, higher education institutions require adequate resources and governance frameworks. They should train their faculty, develop learning materials, and provide practical guidelines to work towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhen educational institutions recognize the value of sustainability education, composition instructors can play a crucial role in promoting sustainability. However, instructors often lack knowledge of sustainability concepts and have limited experience in teaching sustainability [33; 42; 22]. To address this, faculty members need to be prepared to integrate sustainability issues into their writing curriculum. During training, teachers should learn how to incorporate environmental, social, and economic issues into their subject matter and be encouraged to develop activities that facilitate integrated teaching [27; 37; 28].\u003c/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt is important to note that this study was conducted on a small number of students, so the results may not be representative of the overall knowledge level of undergraduate students in the country. The data collected focused on students' knowledge and familiarity with sustainability at the time of data collection, and the essays were written within a limited timeframe and based on a specific prompt, limiting the students' flexibility to explore various sustainability issues in their country. However, the study still provides valuable insights into the perceptions and awareness levels of undergraduate students regarding sustainability. Higher education institutions should recognize their unique role in addressing significant global challenges and equip their students with sustainability awareness and literacy based on competence, enabling them to become agents of change in solving environmental, social, and economic issues for current and future generations.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Abbreviations","content":"\u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionList\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eAASHE\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ethe American Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eESD\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eEducation for Sustainable Development\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eHEIs\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003ehigher education institutions\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eGCC\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eGulf Cooperation Council\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eKNDP\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eKuwait National Development Plan\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eGPA\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003egrade point average\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eSDGs\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSustainable Development Goals\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"DefinitionListEntry\"\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Term\"\u003eSTARS\u003c/div\u003e \u003cdiv class=\"Description\"\u003e \u003cp\u003eSustainability Tracking Assessment Rating System\u003c/p\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e \u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAvailability of data and material:\u003c/strong\u003e Exxx, Ixx Dxx (2023), \u0026ldquo;Sustainability experimental\u0026rdquo;, Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/fhny7btkg7.1\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCompeting interests:\u003c/strong\u003e The author declares that they have no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAuthors\u0026apos; contributions:\u003c/strong\u003e IDE as the sole author of this manuscript wrote the literature review, collected and analyzed the data and produced the discussion section of the manuscript.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEthics approval and consent to participate:\u003c/strong\u003e This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Institutional Review Board\u003cstrong\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/strong\u003eof G..University for S \u0026amp; T (Case number 278674). Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAl Beeshi, A., Alsulaili, A., \u0026amp; Al-Fadhli, F. (2020). 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Bruskotter, J. (2014). Assessing sustainability knowledge of a student population. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 15(\u003cem\u003e4\u003c/em\u003e), 375\u0026ndash;389. \u003cspan class=\"ExternalRef\"\u003e\u003cspan class=\"RefSource\"\u003ehttps://doi.org/10.1108/ijshe-01-2013-0008\u003c/span\u003e\u003cspan address=\"10.1108/ijshe-01-2013-0008\" targettype=\"DOI\" class=\"RefTarget\"\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-education","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"diedu","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Education](https://www.springer.com/journal/44217)","snPcode":"44217","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/44217/3","title":"Discover Education","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"sustainability literacy, content analysis, sequential explanatory mixed method","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe significance of sustainability is increasingly accepted in society, with a consensus that higher education institutions should play a more active role in this field. As higher education institutions and society increasingly prioritize individuals' comprehension of sustainability, the need for accurate assessments of sustainability knowledge becomes more significant. To this end, this study aims to evaluate the sustainability literacy levels of students enrolled in a first-year composition course using a mixed-method sequential explanatory design. The quantitative phase involved 221 students who completed a questionnaire assessing their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and familiarity with sustainability concepts and topics. Following this, 60 students were asked to write an essay identifying Kuwait's significant sustainability challenges and proposing solutions. The results showed that gender, high school type, grade point average (GPA) value, and previous exposure to sustainability cause significant differences in students\u0026rsquo; knowledge, skills, and attitudes about sustainability and that the students primarily associate sustainability challenges with environmental problems; social and economic challenges are rarely mentioned in essays.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Assessing the sustainability literacy of undergraduate students in a first-year writing course","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2024-01-11 11:16:37","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3624454/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2024-03-22T01:07:23+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-03-15T18:15:15+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"325a0f2e-6cf0-4a37-9f9c-0a7d0d028620","date":"2024-03-11T11:19:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2024-02-02T11:23:23+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"27416a4f-a89a-4d53-8536-fcee3fd7a51a","date":"2024-01-28T22:47:31+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"b3fe1266-53eb-46a8-98c8-5ab9270c4e13","date":"2024-01-28T10:24:32+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2024-01-26T08:08:26+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2024-01-10T09:33:15+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2024-01-10T09:31:13+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Discover Education","date":"2023-11-17T07:56:47+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"discover-education","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"diedu","sideBox":"Learn more about [Discover Education](https://www.springer.com/journal/44217)","snPcode":"44217","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/44217/3","title":"Discover Education","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Discover Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"60372393-971f-482a-8095-733623d76316","owner":[],"postedDate":"January 11th, 2024","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-06-20T08:15:58+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2024-01-11 11:16:37","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-3624454","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-3624454","identity":"rs-3624454","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"qtupq5eGEP_6zYnWcrvyt","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}