Purpose - Although researchers have identified correlations between specific attitudes and particular behaviors in the pro-environmental domain, the general relationship between young people’s development of environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors is not well understood. Past research indicates that geographic context can play a role, while social factors such as age and gender can have a more significant impact on predicting attitudes and behaviors than formal education. Few studies have systematically examined the relationships between education and environmental attitudes and behaviors among youth in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study comparing secondary school students’ environmental attitudes and behaviors with age and related factors in two international schools and two government schools in Hong Kong. Students’ attitudes and behaviors were compared based on school type (curriculum), while the authors additionally compared the significance of social factors and attitudes on students’ behaviors.Design/methodology/approach - Attitudes were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the NEP for Children (NEPC), the most commonly used, internationally standardized tools for investigating environmental attitudes and values of adults and young people for comparative purposes. The authors compared NEP/NEPC scores and student self-reported environmental behaviors using a short questionnaire.Findings - No significant differences were found in attitudes or behaviors based on school type. However the authors did observe a significant effect of gender and age on students’ attitudes, and a significant correlation of student attitudes in the NEP with students’ self-reports regarding air conditioning consumption.Originality/value - This study builds a foundation for cross-national studies and for evaluating the impact of curricula over time. Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Schools are one of the major agents of socialisation in society along with the family, community, mass media and peer group. One of the important functions or purpose of education and schooling is to equip learners to live and work effectively in an ever-changing and evolving society. As new and growing challenges emerge which need to be met, such as concerns about environmental issues including destruction of the environment, global warming and an expanding carbon footprint, schools are one of the key agents of socialisation in society which seek to bring about changes in behaviour into more desirable directions. This chapter reports on the results of a research study that examined whether the schooling provided in Hong Kong has been successful in actually getting learners to modify their behaviour in ways and directions which are likely to successfully promote improvements to the environment and sustainable development. The results show that although there was a perceived increase in knowledge of the selected environmental issues, with regard to behaviour changes, 29.4–50.6% of students believed that their environmental behaviour had not changed. The chapter then examines pedagogies that can be successful in changing students’ behaviour and argues that to increase effectiveness of environmental studies, particular types of learning should occur, including discovery learning, systems thinking-based learning, critical thinking-based learning, interdisciplinary learning, problem-based learning and participatory/collaborative learning. Teachers should provide an opportunity to engage students in pro-environmental activities and address values that are going beyond an economic imperative.