Assessing High School Students’ Knowledge of Sustainability

The purpose of our study is to build a valuable regional case by addressing sustainability challenges within the regional context of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). Based on this intent, we examined regional sustainability practices and performed a quantitative analysis. We assessed the sustainability knowledge of high school students in BiH using the revised Assessment of Sustainability Knowledge (ASK) test. The study analysed student performance (N = 297) across the environmental, social, and economic domains of sustainability. Results revealed a mixed understanding of basic sustainability principles. Using a one-way ANOVA, we found no significant differences in test scores across years of study. Performance stratification showed that nearly two-thirds of students scored less than half of all points, highlighting substantial knowledge deficits. A comparison of sustainability knowledge representations reveals that students are most knowledgeable about the social domain, followed by the environmental domain, whereas their comprehension of the economic domain is much less developed. Our findings advocate for a more balanced approach to sustainability education that addresses not only the environmental and social but also the economic aspect of sustainability holistically. These findings are crucial for informing and tailoring sustainability education curricula in BiH to specifically target identified knowledge gaps and prevalent misconceptions.