Comparative Study of the Environmental Cognition between the University Students in Jordan and Japan
Teruaki OHNISHI, Wa乫il R.TYFOUR* and Yasuo ITO侕
Colledge of Mining and Environmental Engineering, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University
侕 Institute of Science and Technology for Society, Japan
(October, 2005)
Various environmental problems are now major issues to be solved for all countries. It is, therefore, a significant matter for us university persons with what philosophy and methodology we should advance hereafter the environmental research and education in the university. In relation to this, Al-Hussein Bin Talal University has promoted a project to make clear how and to what extent the students乫 environmental cognition differs among countries under different social conditions, selecting, at the beginning, Japan as for the country to be compared with Jordan. Social surveys on the environmental cognition of the university students in these two countries have been carried out in this context. This report shows their summed up results.
*) present address: Mu乫tah University
1. INTRODUCTION
2. COGNITIVE SURVEY
3. RESULTS
3.1 What beliefs and values do they hold ?
3.2 What extent of knowledge do they hold ?
3.3 How do they recognize about the environment ?
3.4 What are the environmental problems for them ?
3.5 To what extent do they feel responsibility for the problems ?
3.6 To what extent do they feel the problems as their own ones ?
3.7 How much money do they compensate for the environment ?
3.8 What do they want to know about the environment ?
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
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1. INTRODUCTION
The growing manifestation of global environmental problems, such as the global warming, the ozone layer destruction and the desertification, is the serious concern for all countries. Rapid growth of population in developing countries and its resultant stress to the environment also become serious, as we see an example such that the growing population pressure makes tropical rain forests into the slash-and-burn farming land, causing the deforestation in the tropical region and the extermination of various biological species. In this context, the environmental problem is now one of the most significant issues immediately to cope with for us all.
In making policies for the environmental problems, it is important to grasp in advance the state of public乫s cognition on the environment. In providing information to obtain public support for the environmental policies, it is also important to know how the public feel for the environment. Thus, the grasp of the environmental cognition of the public is necessarily required not only for the administrative point but for the point of public relations. Also in determining the policies regarding the environmental research and education in the university, there exits a similar situation to that. Namely, the grasp of the cognition of young people in the state of education is important in the respect that it gives indispensable information in making guidelines for the environmental research and education.
From such a point of view, this study has carried out the cognitive survey on the environment for the university students in Jordan, intending to offer the fundamental data for promoting the environmental research and education in the university. Also by carrying out the survey in other countries, it is expected to make clear the difference of environmental cognition which may differ depending on the difference of each societal culture. Here we select Japan in the beginning of this project as the country to be compared with Jordan. By comparing the results from these two countries, it is also expected to provide a hint for the environmental research and education hereafter, which should be intrinsic to each country depending on its culture.
2. COGNITIVE SURVEY
The surveys were made for the university students in Jordan and Japan as subjects during the period from July to August in 2005 by using the questionnaires with the same contents as each other. Although various types of social surveys on environment have been carried out in Japan, the survey of this sort seems to be the first time for the student (or the adult) in Jordan.
The questionnaire is consisted from about 60 questions which are categorized into the scientific knowledge in general, the environmental knowledge, the importance of environmental problems, the relation between the subject乫s action and the problems, the monetary value of the environment, the range of the environment, the source of the environmental information, the environmental problems they desire to know more in detail, and so on, together with the attributes of the subject. Almost all these questions are made in the same form where answers are to be selected from seven choices. They were prepared in Arabic for the Jordanian and in Japanese for the Japanese.
Table 1 shows the questionnaire in English. Both the versions in Arabic and Japanese have the same contents and the same design as this English version. The questionnaires were distributed to students in the classroom, and the filled ones were recovered and classified. Following universities were targeted in each country.
(1) Jordan
Irbid University (Irbid)
University of Jordan (Amman)
Mu乫tah University (Al Karak)
Al-Hussein Bin Talal University (Ma乫an)
Total samples recovered from four universities amounted to 495, ranging 100乣200 samples from each university. In all samples, 272 subjects are of the male whose average age is 21.0, whereas 218 subjects of the female with the average age 20.9 (unknown gender for 5 samples). The number of students belonging to the field of science and technology are 174 for the male and 103 for the female, the rest belonging to the field of humanity and social sciences, and others.
(2) Japan
Hachinohe Technical College (Hachinohe City in northern Japan)
University of Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolis in middle Japan)
Science University of Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolis in middle Japan)
Nihon University (Tokyo Metropolis in middle Japan)
Yamaguchi University (Yamaguchi City in southern Japan)
In these universities, Science University of Tokyo and Nihon University are the private university, the rest being the national university. The total number of samples recovered from those five universities is 263, ranging 20乣140 samples from each university. In those samples, 222 subjects are of the male with an average age 20.6, and 41 subjects of the female with the average age 20.2. Almost all students belong to the field of science and engineering. The relatively small number of samples in Japan is mainly due to the period of summer vacation when this survey was carried out.
The standard deviation of the result is about 亇4.5% in Jordanian samples and about 亇6% in Japanese samples, thus they also indicating the uncertainties of the results by one standard deviation. In the case when the difference of the results between two countries exceeds about 10%, therefore, it can be regarded as a meaningful difference between the results by more than one standard deviation. The results will be shown in the next section.
3. RESULTS
In what follows, the results will be shown in the order of topics, not in the order of items in the questionnaire (shown in Table 1). The expressions Q1,乧Q4 correspond respectively to the questions 嘆,乧嘋 in the questionnaire, and Q1.1 the item 1 (乧air pollution乧) in the question 嘆. The item number will be supplemented by a simple key ward such as 乬air pollution乭 if necessary. The following figures are the bar and line charts showing the summed up result with every item, which make easy to compare the results between two countries. The unit of the ordinate is in % unless specified otherwise. The figure number is expressed as Fig.35:Q1.1 or Fig.35:Q1.1(air pollution), for instance, with the number of question and the key word.
To compare the whole items belonging to one topic, the Likert number (or the Likert scale) is introduced. Here the Likert number is the weighted mean of the responded rate to each choice to which a weight (or a score) different from each other is added. In our case, the choices from 乬do not agree it at al乭 to 乬agree it very strongly乭 are respectively put the weights from 1 to 7 in order. For instance, the choice 乬not agree nor do not agree乭 has the weight 4, and 乬agree it slightly乭 the weight 5. With its approach to the value 4, therefore, the mean becomes to be moderate. It should be noted, however, that the Likert number does not represent the distributional state of response, but only the average of the distribution.
3.1 What beliefs and values do they hold ?
3.2 What extent of knowledge do they hold ?
3.3 How do they recognize about the environment ?
3.4 What are the environmental problems for them ?
3.5 To what extent do they feel responsibility for the problems ?
3.6 To what extent do they feel the problems as their own ones ?
3.7 How much money do they compensate for the environment ?
3.8 What do they want to know about the environment ?
3.1 What beliefs and values do they hold ?
Fig.1:Q1.40 乬I never take any action whenever there exists a possibility to have risk, even if it seems to be very profitable乭
Fig.2:Q1.41丂乬I usually decide on my policy, considering the probable state in far future, not the state at present nor in near future乭
Fig.3:Q1.46 乬I become to be very uneasy when I make an action different from the other people乫s one乭
Fig.4:Q1.52 乬I usually take an action by subjectively making a plan by myself乭
Fig.5Q1.53 乬I recognize my own role in the society乭
Fig.6:Q1.48丂乬I do not anxious for any property to be broken if it is a thing belonging to a community, not of my own乭
Fig.7:Q1.35 乬I never agree the construction of waste disposal facility very near my house乭
Fig.8:Q1.39 乬I never be concerned with neighbors when everyday safety is once guaranteed for me and for my family乭
Fig.9:Q1.55 乬I usually do something by taking the side of the weak乭
Fig.10:Q1.54 乬Richness in material is more significant than richness in mind in our life乭
With regard to Fig.1:Q1.40(risk and profit), the ratios of respondents who do not agree the description Q1.40 (that is, 乬do not agree it slightly乭 + 乭do not agree it乭 + 乭do not agree it al all乭) are 46.7% and 41.4% in Jordan and Japan, respectively. There is no meaningful difference between two countries. In the case of the Japanese, however, the distribution has a strong tendency to center on the moderate opinion. As seen also in the following figures (Figs.2乣5, Figs.9 and 10), a considerable fraction of the Japanese students responds to the questions on their beliefs and values as 乬not agree nor do not agree乭. For this reason, the distribution of the response shows a feature of an isosceles triangle which has gentle extent to both sides, just as seen in Fig.1
Moreover, even in the case of question where it is required a definite answer on the ethical value, such as Fig.8:Q1.39 (everyday safety) for instance, the response of the Japanese does never become so sharp in the distribution as that of the Jordanian. Namely, the ethical values of the Japanese students are not in the state of collective unification, whereas the values of the Jordanian students are. Such unification of ethical cognition may be due to a culture intrinsic to and prevailing over the Jordanian, that is the Islamic culture. If it is the case, such ethical values are not restricted only to Jordan but extend all over the Islamic world.
The reason why the Japanese students avoid the choice in the extreme positions such as 乬agree it very strongly乭 or 乬do not agree it al all乭 is probably due to the consideration that there may exist some exceptional cases which do not fulfill the extreme conditions. It, therefore, is not necessarily owed to a weak-willed character, but to a general character common to all Japanese. Moreover, the reason why they do not have a strongly unified opinion is mainly due to the fact that the Japanese society has been changed to the one which gives much weight to the diversification of values. The personality and the individuality are highly evaluated in the modern Japanese society, so that young person乫s feelings are very diverse in beliefs and values in Japan.
In the cognition of Japanese students, which apparently seems to be vague, only one question to which answer by them sharply biases as or, rather, over the Jordanian students is on the waste disposal facility to be built near their place of residence (Fig.7:Q1.35). This question asks the extent of NIMBY (Not In My Back Yard) feeling, which is the unpleasant one against the construction of a sort of public facilities due to their dirtiness, riskiness and noisiness, though they are needed for their society. Such facilities are, for instance, the military facility, the nuclear facility, the air port and the traffic road, together with the waste disposal facility. The Japanese are extremely sensitive against the construction of NIMBY facilities due partially to high population density and partially to the egoism of inhabitants.
The social surveys have been continuously carried out in Japan during the last 30 years, which ask the subjects 乬which richness in material or in mind is more important for you ?乭. According to those results, the supporters of the spiritual richness became to be superior to that of material richness in the middle of 1990s. Although Fig.10:Q1.54(richness in material or mind) can not be directly compared with that result because the number of choices differs from each other, the response to this question Q1.54 clearly biases to the side of richness in mind both for the students in Jordan and Japan. The gross national product (GNP) per capita in Jordan is about 1800 US$ at present, whereas it was far more than 20 thousand US$ in Japan in the middle 1990s, being about 30 thousand US$ at present. On the contrary to the fact that the cognition of the Japanese who regard the spiritual richness as to be more important has grown after the attainment of material richness and economical fulfillment, the cognition of Jordanian students clearly indicates to be originated from some spiritual mind coming from the values of their own society, which are quite different from the materialism.
Fig.11 shows the comparison of Likert numbers on those subjects between the Jordanian and the Japanese.
3.2 What extent of knowledge do they hold ?
Fig.12:Q1.22 乬The weight of one carbon atom is 12 gram.乭
Fig.13:Q1.23 乬A regular square with a side of 1 cm long has a diagonal of about 2 cm long.乭
Fig.15:Q1.25 乬That the tossed ball falls on the ground is due to the exhaustion of energy.乭
Fig.16:Q1.11 乬I have knowledge of the effect of enhanced CO2 concentration in the atmosphere on global environment.乭
Fig.17:Q1.49 乬We are always exposed to radioactive radiation wherever we are on the earth.乭
Fig.19:Q1.32 乬The environmental problem in a world wide scale is only the global warming.乭
Fig.20:Q1.50 乬Ozone is a greenhouse gas.乭
The correct answers to the questions Q1.22 (carbon atom)乣Q1.25 (tossed ball) are all 乬do not agree it at all乭. Responses to these questions have a similar pattern of distribution to each other in each country, where the relatively high percentage of Jordanian students answering 乬not agree nor do not agree乭 is conspicuous. In this case, the state of 乬not agree nor do not agree乭 may be interpreted as the state to be unable to distinctly determine yes or no because of their deficiency of sufficient knowledge about it.
Noticing that almost all Japanese students belong to the field of science and engineering, the data for the Jordanian students were re-arranged according to their attributes. As a result of such re-calculation with every attribute, it was found that the Jordanian students in the field of science and engineering show better responses to all questions than the students in the other fields, and that there exist meaningful differences in the performance rates among Jordanian universities. It was also found, however, that there exist no practical differences in the responses between the male and the female in the Jordanian students. For all questions Q1.22乣Q1.25, the performance rates by the Jordanian students in science and engineering, however, do not exceed 50 %.
Also for the environmental knowledge Fig.19:Q1.32(global warming) and Fig.20:Q1.50 (ozone), the similar trend of difference as that in the scientific knowledge appears in the distribution of response between the Jordanian and the Japanese.
Figure 21 shows the comparison of Likert number for those environmental knowledge between the students. Here, for the two questions Q1.32 (global warming) and Q1.50 乮ozone乯, the modified Likert numbers were plotted, which are possibly got under the condition that the sentences of those questions are changed so that the affirmative answers are correct, as in the other questions (that is, the modified Likert number shown in Fig.21 = 8.0-the real Likert number). Except for the cases of global warming and ozone, the extent of knowledge in the Jordanian and the Japanese is roughly the same as each other so far as we discuss it from the average values. The relatively high values of the Likert number for the global problems in case of the Japanese are owed to the fact that those are just the problems in the news now in Japan.
3.3 How do they recognize about the environment ?
Fig.22:Q1.8 乬Clean environment is the property common to all people.乭
Fig.25:Q1.10 乬Any environmental problem will not come out in our country from now on as until now.乭
Fig.32:Q1.44 乬I feel the spatial region of environment for me to be limited within my own country.乭
Fig.33:Q1.45 乬I feel the spatial region of environment for me to be all over the world.乭
The cognitions of Jordanian students for the questions Fig.22:Q1.8 (clean environment) and Fig.23:Q1.47 (future generation) are highly unified. The responses of the Jordanian to the questions Fig.24:Q1.51乣Fig.26:Q1.26, however, are quite diverse comparing to those of the Japanese students.
The cognitions of Japanese students is, in turn, unified for the questions Fig.23:Q1.47乣Fig.26:Q1.26. This is because the environmental issues with regard to those questions are just the environmental problems with which Japan is confronted at present. The Japanese government, along with local municipalities are appealing to the public about the recovery and conservation of natural environment, and are promoting the environmental education in schools and in the society, widely calling public乫s attention to those issues. The environment for the Japanese often means the nature familiar to all Japanese such as the mountain, the sea, the wood and the river, including ecological systems living within them. Such sentiments partially come from the self-examination to the nature destructed during the period of industrialization in 1960s and 1970s. The thought of environmental conservation and its related movements such as the energy saving and the recycling of materials are now supported by almost all Japanese and becomes to be a national consensus, so that the collective opinion regarding those issues has bee tacitly formed in the Japanese society. These figures Fig.23:Q1.47乣Fig.26:Q1.26 reflect a situation as such.
According to Fig.30:Q1.42乣Fig.33:Q1:45, the environmental range which the Jordanian students recognize is slightly extensive that that of the Japanese. This is also clear from the comparison using the Likert number in Fig.34. That the Jordanian grasp of the whole world as the environment for oneself is not inconsistent with the tendency shown in Fig.22:Q1.8 (clean environment) and Fig.23:Q1.47 (future generation). They seem to originate from and to reflect the Islamic education which is oriented to the global extension of space and time.
3.4 What are the environmental problems for them ?
Fig.41:Q1.7 乬I have not considered the water resource problem of our country.乭
The rapid growth of population in near future is forecasted in Jordan (the growth rate of population in 2004 is 2.6 %), so that the water supply (which includes the drinking water and the water for agricultural irrigation) for the nation is a serious issues in this country. The strong interest in water resources (Fig.39:Q1.5), therefore, seems to be reasonable for the Jordanian students. Also the air pollution (Fig.35:Q1.1), the desertification of arable land (Fig.38:Q1.4), and the fine dust dispersion in the mining (Fig.36:Q1.2) are serious problems. The influential region of such types of problems is almost restricted to the interior of Jordan. The degree of recognition to those problems as important issues is, therefore, high for the Jordanian students because their influences may affect them actually and directly. As compared to those problems, the risk from the global warming (Fig.37:Q1.3) is recognized to be weak by the Jordanian students presumably because of its prospective and unclear nature. Figure 42 also indicates that the local-scale environmental pollution is the problem which faces up to Jordan just at the present time.
In contrary to such recognition of the Jordanian, the Japanese students show almost reverse trend to that, as seen in Fig.42. The local-scale environmental pollution tends to be thought, in Japan, as the problems in the past, which have been almost resolved until recent years.
The recognition of the water resource shortage as an important issue for the Jordanian also appears in Fig.41:Q1.7 (water resource problem). The water shortage is everlasting in recent years in Jordan. The water supply for the nation is on the verge of bankruptcy. A considerable fraction of the irrigation water is the recycled water from municipal waste water. Moreover the rapid deterioration of water quality also becomes serious in recent years. In spite of the fact that the Jordanian students probably know such situations regarding their water resources, their response to the question Fig.40:Q1.6 (water security) seems to be dispersive, indicating rather optimistic opinion on the water security in the future.
3.5 To what extent do they feel responsibility for the problems ?
The Fig.47:Q1.15 (significant problems) is the question which asks the students to what extent of independency they are concerned in the environmental problems. If we consider that the students respond to it by noting the phrase 乬by ourselves乭, it does not seem to exist the significant difference in the attitude in internalizing the environmental problems as the problems of themselves between the Jordanian and the Japanese. As seen in Fig.45:Q1.13 (duty of the Government) and Fig.46:Q1.14 (other people乫s activities), the responsibility to the environmental problem is high for both the Jordanian and the Japanese. Also the relatively sharp response to the question Fig.43:Q1.9 (expansion of problem) is not inconsistent with such trends as the above. So far as Fig.43乣47 are concerned, the extent the Jordanian students feel the environmental problems as the problems of their own is similar to or rather stronger than that of the Japanese.
The distribution of the response to the question Fig.43:Q1.9 (expansion of problem) is somewhat similar to that to Fig.47:Q1.15 (significant problems). This indicates a cause-and-effect relation between these two items, namely, the students of both countries have a common recognition such that it is a problem to be solved by themselves because it is quite serious.
The question Fig.47:Q1.15 (significant problems) is similar to the former question Fig.24:Q1.51 (important problems) in their contents. The distributions of responses to these questions, however, somewhat differ from each other not only for the Jordanian students but for the Japanese students. One of the reasons for this is probably due to the difference of the subject of action between these two questions. Namely, the subject in the question Fig.47:Q1.15 is 乬ourselves乭, whereas it is 乬our country乭 in the question Fig.24:Q1.51. As compared to the response to Fig.47:Q1.15, the distribution of the response to Fig.24:Q1.51 becomes somewhat broad in case of the Jordanian students, but conversely the distribution becomes sharp in case of the Japanese students. This may indicate that the Jordanian have a tendency to make the environmental problem as their own problem, without depending on the body politic. On the other hand, the Japanese students seem to have a tendency to entrust its resolution to the body politic, rather than to resolve it by their own effort.
3.6 To what extent do they feel the problems as their own ones ?
Fig.48:Q1.20 乬Our using of electricity is indirectly linked to environmental pollution.乭
Fig.49:Q1.31 乬The consumption of energy in any form causes bad influence on global environment乭
Fig.50:Q1.34 乬Driving a car links to pollute environment.乭
Fig.51:Q1.28 乬Throwing trash out of doors does not induce any environmental problem.乭
Every response to the questions in this subsection does not show any extremely biased distribution, except for Fig.51:Q1.28 (throwing trash) for which there appears a sharply unified cognition especially in the Jordanian students, indicating this coming from their own social culture.
It may easily be possible to imagine the probable influence of concrete and direct actions such as the car driving and the throwing out trash on the environment. It is not necessarily easy, however, to imagine how the every day action such as the consumption of electricity and energy in general links to the environmental problems. This is one of the reasons why the responses to these questions Fig.48:Q1.20 and Fig.49:Q1.31 show dispersive features.
Figure 54 shows the Likert numbers for the attitudes regarding the problems as their own ones, where the modified Likert numbers are plotted for the questions Q1.28, Q1.29 and Q1.30 in the same manner as in Fig.21. So far as we discuss the attitudes from the average values, there appear no significant differences between the Jordanian and the Japanese except for small differences in their magnitudes.
3.7 How much money do they compensate for the environment ?
Fig.59:Q1.21 乬I do not consent to pay money for using water.乭
Fig.60:Q1.33 乬Car owners should pay some special expense for environmental conservation.乭
The Yen is the Japanese currency unit. 100 Yen is equivalent to about 0.65 JD.
With regard to the payment specific to the water use (Fig.59: Q1.21) and the car ownership (Fig.60: Q1.33), large fractions of the Jordanian students choose the extreme answers of both approve and disapprove. Moreover in Jordan, the feeling for denying the environmental tax (Fig.58: Q1.19) can not be negligible as compared to Japan. This indicates that there exists a considerable gap regarding the cognition or the way of thinking in the compensation for the environmental destruction or the environmental conservation between the Jordanian and the Japanese. The Likert numbers for the two countries are compared in Fig.61 which clearly indicates such a situation.
Such a gap of monetary recognition between two countries may partially be due to the difference of living standard between the two, although some part of it may depend on the Islamic culture where the public have been accustomed no to compensate by money for the use of nature. The GNP per capita in Japan, as already described, is about 30 thousand US dollars which can afford the compensation, whereas it is about 1800 US dollars in Jordan. The room of mind to conserve the natural environment by money, therefore, could be larger for the Japanese than for the Jordanian.
Moreover, the thoughts do not yet prevail in Jordan such as the 乬environmental economics乭 or the 乬internalization of external cost乭, which is the measure or the action to include the expense, for instance, in the electric fee for compensating the environmental destruction by the thermal power generation. Such a type of economical thinking, however, has already been introduced in western countries including Japan.
3.8 What do they want to know about the environment ?
Fig.62: Q4 乬subjects they want to know乭
Fig.63: Q2+Q3 乬sources of environmental information乭
In Fig.62, it shows the number ratio of the students who responded as 乬want to know乭 to the total number of students. In the fourteen choices except for 乬nothing I want to know乭, the subjects for which the Jordanian students have higher ratio than the Japanese are only the 乬sewage management乭 and the 乬waste disposal乭. Since the subject with the ratio exceeding 30 % is only the 乬destruction of ozone layer乭 for the Jordanian students, the extent of interest in the environmental problems seems to be much lower in Jordan than in Japan. This is also indicated by comparing the mean values of the bar height in Fig.62 except for 乬nothing I want to know乭, which are 16.4% and 30.6% for the Jordanian and the Japanese, respectively.
The Japanese students have high interest in the subjects such as the 乬global warming乭, 乬renewable energy乭, 乬destruction of ecological system乭 and the 乬destruction of ozone layer乭. This is mainly because these subjects are just the every day topics in the Japanese society.
Figure 63 shows the sum of the responses to the questions Q2 and Q3. The environmental information is obtained mainly from television and internet in Jordan, and television and newspapers in Japan.
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS
In western countries, the solution of not only the domestic environmental problems but the global ones is placed as an important issue to be tackled hereafter. Also in Japan, the policy for those problems does not differ from those countries. The Ministry of Environment in Japan enacted the law in 2003 regarding 乬the enhancement of enthusiasm for the environmental conservation and the promotion of environmental education乭. According to this law, the Japanese government has now an attitude to vigorously push forward the social education of environment for the adults belonging to various social organizations and private companies, together with the school education and voluntary activities for the environmental conservation by children.
The environmental problems in Japan until about twenty year ago were almost limited to the local-scale environmental pollution. It is in the last twenty years in Japan that the growth and expansion becomes to be pronounced in the thought of environmental conservation. The environment in this case is equivalent to nature in meaning. The thought of 乬conservation and protection of nature乭 now becomes to be a universal consensus of all Japanese. It is not too much to say that not a day passes that any mass medium does never report such a sort of environmental topics.
According to such a Zeit geist or a time spirit, the paradigm of the research and education on the environmental problem has been changed from the local environmental pollution to the conservation of global environment in almost all Japanese universities. The conservation of nature and global environment now becomes to be one of the slogans common to all universities to such an extent that their direction in research and education can be almost expressed by a few key words such as 乬environment乭, and 乬international乭 and 乬information乭, the latter two being the other prevalent thoughts at present. The environmental cognition of Japanese students has grown up under such a condition of social environment.
On the other hand in Jordan, the problem on the environment can be said to be in the intermingled state of the local-scale environmental pollution and the global environmental problems. Moreover in Jordan, information environment made by the news media is considerably weak not only in the field of environmental problems but in almost all fields. The environmental thought follows, in general, an Islamic doctrine so that the environmental problems are mainly interpreted according to the Islamic education. Such difference in the society, the culture and the educational system between Jordan and Japan possibly lead the difference in the environmental cognition of the students.
To consider the environmental problems in respective society, and to research them and to educate students in the university, the methodology intrinsic to each society must be searched and established. The result of our survey is hoped to offer one of the fundamental data for that purpose.