Which science matters? The role of biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science in shaping students’ environmental attitudes and behaviours

Abstract

Promoting environmental responsibility is a central aim of science education, as addressing today’s environmental challenges requires not only scientific knowledge but also attitudes and behaviours that support sustainable action. However, limited research has examined how different science disciplines contribute to students’ environmental attitudes and behaviours. Thus, this study investigates how secondary students’ knowledge, interest, and confidence in biology, chemistry, physics, and earth science relate to their environmental attitudes (preservation and utilisation) and self-reported environmental behaviours. Using structural equation modelling, we analyzed Finnish data (N = 5,880) from TIMSS 2023 to examine how cognitive and motivational factors in each science subject predict environmental outcomes. The findings reveal that biology plays a particularly important role: students’ knowledge, interest, and confidence in biology were consistently associated with stronger preservation attitudes and more responsible environmental behaviours. Chemistry also showed positive associations with preservation-oriented views and actions. In contrast, physics was more strongly linked to utilisation attitudes and showed mixed effects on behaviour. Earth science was associated with more utilisation-focused and less preservation-oriented views. These results suggest that science subjects shape students’ environmental perspectives in distinct ways, and not all disciplines equally promote environmental responsibility. Implications for science education and curriculum design are discussed.