The Effect of Place-Based Education Integrated Project Studies on Students’ Problem-Solving and Social Skills

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of place-based education integrated project studies on students' problem solving and social skills. The participants were 18 (10 females and 8 males) 7th grade students located in a northeastern city of Turkey in the 2017 fall semester. Students conducted project studies about local history, cultural, and socio-economic structure of their environments within the context of place-based education approach. To collect data, Social Skills Scale to measure social skill levels of students and Perception Scale for Problem Solving Skills to measure students' problem solving skills were used as pre-and post-tests. Since the study was conducted with only experimental group, simple experimental design was utilized. To analyze data, SPSS package program was used. Wilcoxon signed tests were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the pre-and post-tests mean scores of the students' problem solving and social skills. The results of the Wilcoxon signed tests revealed that students' problem solving and social skills post-test scores were significantly higher than their problem solving and social skills pre-test scores. Therefore, it can be suggested that project studies within the context of place-based education approach should be included in the teaching of different skills, values, and knowledge within the scope of social studies. For future research, it can be recommended to conduct research studies investigating the effects of project-based learning integrated project studies or activities on students' skills including communication, social inclusion, observation, and inquiry skills in social studies.

Implementation of Place-Based Education: A Case Study in a Primary School at Talhogang, Bhutan

“…Dani (2019) in a study a community and place-based approach to middle childhood science teacher education, found that community-based learning enrich student experiences. This theme also echoes similar findings by Bartholomaeus (2006) and Akbas & Cakmak (2019). A possible explanation for the observed success of this community-based learning practice at MGVS can be interpreted with analysis of teachers' response to the interview questions.…”

Roots and Shoots: Building Bridges between Schools and Their Communities

“…There is no doubt that these kinds of projects positively influenced the students. The feeling of empowerment and the reported positive impact on students' cooperative skills correspond with the findings of other similar studies [23][24][25][26][27][28]47]. By implementing these projects, the students could experience success and see that their effort brought something new to their community [48][49][50][51].…”

“…Other authors highlight the impacts on students' competencies such as their critical thinking [23] or on their cooperation and problem-solving skills [24][25][26][27]. Place-based education programs also may promote students' empowerment to engage in pro-environmental behaviour [28].…”

Place-Based Education: Community as a Multidisciplinary Learning Environment

“…Many researchers have investigated knowledge gain and learning that occurred during place-based education by using several techniques and activities (e.g. Glasson, 2015; Anderso -06 -& Sarah, 2017; Özkaral & Tas, 2018;Akbas, & Çakmak, 2019). Additionally, Knapp (2005) mentioned that depending on how the activities are carried out, PBE can contain aspects of problem-based learning, experiential learning, outdoor learning, and community-based education.…”

“…Likely, Akbas and Çakmak (2019) conducted a study that demonstrated the effectiveness of the impact of place-based education on problem-solving and students' social skills, the participants were 18 seventh-grade students in Turkey, Students undertook project studies on the local history, cultural, and social, and economic structure of their environments in the context of a place-based education approach.…”