A place-based practice in primary school: effects on environmental literacy

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the effect of place-based teaching practices on students’ environmental literacy in the Life Science course of 3rd grade primary school students. The research was designed according to the mixed methods model. In this study, the experimental group was taught with place-based teaching practices for 10 weeks, while the control group was taught with activities from the 2018 Life Science curriculum. The Environmental Literacy Instrument for Children (ELIC), developed by the researcher, was used as a data collection tool in the study. When the post-test scores of the experimental and control groups obtained from the ELIC were compared, a positive difference was found in favour of the experimental group. Based on the knowledge that children develop environmental literacy through their childhood experiences, it was found that the provision of place-based teaching practices at primary school age will have important outcomes in terms of developing responsible behaviours and attitudes towards the environment.

KEYWORDS:

• Place-based education
• environmental literacy
• environmental knowledge
• affective disposition towards environment
• questioning behaviour towards the environment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. This research was produced under the supervision of the second author as part of the first author’s doctoral dissertation.

2. The Ethics Committee permission was obtained from the relevant university for the confidentiality and security of the data collected from the participants participating in the study and the process was carried out accordingly. The names of the participants were changed and expressed with codes.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Gizem Tabaru Örnek

Gizem Tabaru Örnek She received her doctorate degree from Gazi University, Department of Primary Teacher Education. She is currently working as a Dr. Lecturer at Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey University, Department of Primary Teacher Education. She is currently working as an Assistant Professor. Her research interests are out-of-school learning environments in Life Sciences and Social Studies courses, place-based teaching, and the integration of technology into educational environments.

Selma Yel

Selma Yel She is a professor at Gazi University, Department of Primary Teacher Education. Her research interests are value-based teaching and nature education in the Social Studies course.