Assessing Energy Literacy of Iranian Ninth-Grade Students

Abstract

The extent to which people understand the role of energy in everyday life is called energy literacy. The purpose of this study is to investigate the levels of energy literacy among 393 Iranian 9th-grade students using the ‘Energy Literacy Questionnaire’(ELQ) and study the effective factors on their energy literacy. The Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman productmoment correlation, and Z test were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the level of energy knowledge of students is discouragingly low, but students were aware of energy-saving behaviours and they had relatively good attitudes and values towards the energy issues. Gender, school location, and the level of parent’s education were the effective factors in the level of energy literacy of students. Male students were better than female students in the behaviour part and rural students had more positive attitudes and values than urban students. Parents' education level was an effective factor in students’ level of knowledge in energy.