Purpose: Aiming to find out how to incorporate green building into the architectural curriculum, this study aims to explore the psychological path for cultivating architectural students' awareness and motivation to learn the green design concepts and related technologies. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a global review of relevant architectural courses in universities, a set of green building learning behaviors was proposed and a survey was conducted in architectural schools in South China to verify the "value-belief-norm" theory through the lens of green building learning behaviors. The psychological path that affects students' green building learning behaviors was analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings: The results showed that biospheric and altruistic values could directly affect students' motivation to learn green building, while personal norms served as the mediating condition for personal values and beliefs, and ultimately improved motivation. Practical implications: The study suggests that the cultivation of environmental awareness and a sense of the ecological crisis should be developed through foundation courses, by establishing an ecological architecture curriculum, to more effectively guide students to learn and practice green building. Originality/value: This study, for the first time, applied the "value-belief-norm" theory, which was developed to explain the psychological path for pro-environmental behaviors, to green building learning behaviors of architectural students.