Investigating Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Geography Student's toward Sustainable Development

To gain sustainable development, balanced development with maintaining environmental values, should be think about the evolution of the biological culture of societies so that people adapt to the sustainability. The purpose of this research was to study Geography students' awareness, attitudes, and behaviors toward sustainable development at Urmia University. This study is survey research, and the statistical population is Geography students at Urmia University. Among them, 149 students were selected using random sampling method, and the required information was collected by a questionnaire. The validity of the questionnaire was confirmed based on the evaluation of experts, and its reliability was confirmed by calculating Cronbach's alpha (environmental awareness= 0.71, environmental attitude= 0.78, and environmental behavior= 0.75).The findings indicated that 25.5% of the students had a high level, 41.5% had a medium level, and 33% had a low level of awareness, and 28.2% of students had a strong, 33.5% had a moderate, and 38.3% had a weak attitude toward sustainable development. Also, 42% of students had good behavior, 32.2% had moderate, and 35.8% had poor behavior in sustainable development. The results of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant and positive relationship between these sets: awareness and attitude, awareness and behavior, and attitude and behavior toward sustainable development. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that attitude and Grade Average predict 19% of the variation inGeography students' behavior toward sustainable development. Therefore, it can be said that environmental education and changing students' attitude toward the environment are prerequisites for achieving sustainable development.