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

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.