The impact of flood experience on primary school students’ climate change knowledge, self-assessment and attitudes

The last decade climate change has led to more frequent and intense extreme weather events. In September 2023, storm Daniel caused catastrophic floods in Thessaly, Greece creating an opportunity to explore how disaster experience shapes students’ knowledge, self-assessment, and attitudes towards climate change. Quantitative research was conducted with (N = 711) students from eight primary schools in flood-affected areas using a structured questionnaire. Students demonstrated mixed levels of conceptual knowledge, with notable misconceptions. Girls outperformed boys in knowledge, while fifth graders scored higher than sixth graders on knowledge, likely due to curriculum differences. However, older students showed stronger attitudes and higher self-assessment. Direct flood experience was linked to significantly higher knowledge scores. Furthermore, negative emotions such as fear, insecurity, and sadness correlated with more positive attitudes. A moderate correlation was found between attitudes and self-assessment, but no significant correlation emerged between attitudes and knowledge. These findings indicate that disaster experience can enhance students’ knowledge toward climate change but not necessarily improve more positive attitudes. The persistence of misconceptions and the gap between knowledge and attitudes underline call for curricula providing not only knowledge about climate change and its mechanisms but also foster personal experiences and emotional engagement especially in high-risk areas.