Environmental Education in College: The Gap between Student Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors

Abstract

Global environmental issues, such as climate change, pollution, and ecosystem degradation, demand a real response from the world of education, especially universities. Students are seen as agents of change who play a strategic role in realizing sustainable development. This study uses a literature study method by analyzing academic literature, international reports. The purpose of the research is to examine the level of knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors of students towards environmental issues, as well as to review the implementation of environmental education in universities. The results of the study showed that students have a fairly high level of knowledge about environmental issues, but there is a significant gap between knowledge and real behavior. Cultural factors, social norms, and lack of institutional support reinforce the phenomenon of the attitude-behavior gap. In addition, the implementation of environmental education in higher education is not yet uniform and tends to be partial, with the dominance of additional approaches without thorough integration in the curriculum. Thus, universities can play a more effective role in forming students who not only understand environmental issues, but are also committed to real action for global sustainability.