Global warming is a serious environmental issue nowadays. It does not only bring extreme weather changes, but also cause economic loss. For sustainable development, many countries, including Taiwan, have implemented many policies intended to mitigate global warming, and to reduce carbon emission, including increased use of renewable energy and increased energy efficiency.

In Taiwan, energy conservation and carbon reduction has been listed as important guiding principles of government policies, and the year of 2010 was even named as “the year of energy conservation and carbon reduction”. The government implemented many policies and intended to develop Taiwan into a low-carbon country. However, more efforts are needed. 

Taiwan was included in ranking of Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI) by Germanwatch regarding CO2 emission trend, level, and climate policy in 2009. Taiwan ranked 29 among 57 countries, the following year, Taiwan ranked 44, in 2012, Taiwan ranked 50, in 2014 Taiwan ranked 52 indicating that overall performance was very poor (Burck, Bals, & Bohnenberger, 2012; Burck, Marten, Bals, 2014). These data suggested that energy education is especially important in Taiwan. So far, most energy education research has focused on students and schools, less research is done with parents.

Good parent-child interactions have positive effects on children’s development. According to Vygotsky, the zone of proximal development refers to the distance between a child’s “actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving” and the higher level of “potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers” (1978, p. 86). Children can be helped to move from where they are to where they can be with help with collaboration with more competent people (Miller, 2011). Chyi, Lin, and Liu (2011) found that 3rd and 4th graders who received parent-child educational learning sheets about prevention of domestic violence and sexual assault education had better understanding of, attitude towards, and cognitive knowledge of the prevention of the domestic violence and sexual assault. Su et al. (2013) found that after energy education intervention, children’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors toward energy saving and carbon reduction significantly improved. After controlling for pretest, children in experimental group had better behaviors than children in control groups. Results suggested that energy education intervention of parent-child handouts and worksheets had some positive effects on children. It is unclear whether energy education intervention at home has the same effects on parents as well.

This study is intended to study whether energy education intervention (parent-child handouts and worksheets) at home affected parents. There were three major objectives.

1. To describe pretests and posttests of parents' knowledge and behaviors towards energy saving and carbon reduction in Taiwan.

2. To design two handouts and worksheets of energy education and implement them with the experimental group at home.

3. To analyze the effects of experiment of parent-child energy education intervention at home.

Theoretical framework:

This study hypothesizes that experimental treatments of parent-child energy education intervention have positive effects on parents' post-test ratings of knowledge and behaviors towards energy saving and carbon reduction.

This research was supported by grants from the National Science Council in Taiwan NSC 102-3113-S-324-001

Burck, J. & Bals, C., & Bohnenberger, K. (2012). Climate Change Performance Index Result 2012. Bonn: Germanwatch. Burck,J., Marten,F., Bals, C. (2014). The Climate Change Performance Index Results 2014. Bonn: Germanwatch. https://germanwatch.org/en/download/8599.pdf Chyi, H. -J., Lin, M. -C., & Liu, C. -L. (2011). The study of effectiveness on parent-kid learning sheet in domestic violence and sexual assault prevention education. Asian Journal of Domestic Violence and Sexual Offense, 7(1), 13-46. Miller, P. H. (2011). Theories of developmental psychology. New York: Worth. Su, Hsiu-Chih, Tsay, Hsin-Sheng, Wang, Wei-Kuo, Chang, Hua-Nan, Wang, Wen-Yu, Pai, Tzu-Yi (2012). Survey of Parents’ Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors towards Energy Saving and Carbon Emission Reduction in Taiwan Elementary Schools. The Journal of Chaoyang University of Technology, 17, 107-154. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Council in Taiwan NSC 102-3113-S-324-001 Su, Hsiu-Chih, Tsay, Hsin-Sheng, Wang, Wei-Kuo, Chang, Hua-Nan, Wang, Wen-Yu, Pai, Tzu-Yi (2013, Sept.). The Effects of Energy Education Intervention on Children’s Knowledge, Attitudes, and Behaviors towards Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction in Taiwan. European Conferencr on Educational Research 2013, Turkey,Istanbul. Vygotsky, L. (1978). Mind in society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.