The Development and Application of a Public Energy Literacy Instrument

Few and fairly limited measures of public energy literacy exist, especially in the Canadian context. We argue that more needs to be known about the public with respect to their energy-related literacy, given their increasing involvement as informants to and participants in energy systems and sustain...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian journal of science, mathematics and technology education mathematics and technology education, 2022-03, Vol.22 (1), p.42-67
Main Authors: Das, Runa R., Richman, Russell
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Behavior
Cognition
Cognitive ability
Education
Energy
Engineering/Technology Education
Foreign Countries
Knowledge Level
Literacy
Mathematics Education
Measures (Individuals)
Measuring instruments
Mixed methods research
Public Opinion
Qualitative analysis
Questionnaires
Science Education
Scores
Sustainability transitions
Test Reliability
Urban Areas
Urban environments
Utilities
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Few and fairly limited measures of public energy literacy exist, especially in the Canadian context. We argue that more needs to be known about the public with respect to their energy-related literacy, given their increasing involvement as informants to and participants in energy systems and sustainability transitions. In this article, we describe the development and application of a public energy literacy instrument measuring three recognized domains of energy literacy (cognition, attitudes, and behaviours) in an urban setting. Existing surveys, frameworks, and models from academic and grey literature were used to guide development. Mixed methods included pretesting, cognitive interviews, and quantitative and qualitative analysis. The resulting instrument is a 15-item, 5-item, and 9-item measure of energy-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours, respectively. The instrument was administered to 204 Torontonians, who demonstrated low knowledge but high attitude and behaviour scores. Results support a reliable instrument that can be used in further research as well as in the field.
ISSN:1492-6156
1942-4051
DOI:10.1007/s42330-022-00196-4