University students’ perception of the factors affecting preschool and primary students’ recycling behaviour as a tool to improve environmental education in the university curriculum ( Percepción de los estudiantes universitarios de los factores que influyen sobre la conducta de reciclaje de los estudiantes de educación infantil y primaria como herramienta para mejorar la educación ambiental en el currículum universitario )

Abstract

The purpose of this synthetic work is to examine university students’ perception of children’s relevant factors for recycling behaviour aiming to improve their university curriculum. The main idea of this analysis was to focus on faculty of education students, as they will be the future environmental educators that will provide the basic environmental knowledge to students in preschool and primary education. A systematic review was performed to reveal potential factors influencing the recycling behaviour of children, and then a new survey was conducted through a questionnaire to evaluate the 320 university students’ perception of the Faculty of Education of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki on the factors affecting the preschool and primary school students towards recycling. The findings indicated that university students’ perception is in line with the bibliography and show that according to students, the family environment is the most important factor affecting children’s recycling behaviour.