The frequecy of usage of suggested activities for teachig creative thikig skills in life sciece course for third grades (the example of Malatya)

When the Life Science Course curriculum is analysed, it is seen that a great importance has been given to educating the smallest building block of society, the individual who is equipped with basic knowledge and skills and the individuals who can adopt to the environment in a positive, successful and effective way. With the methods and techniques used in attaining the skills of creative thinking, it?s been targeted that how the individual may think in a different way and how to provide opportunities for making his/her thougts visible. This study aims to describe how often the 3rd class teachers who have been applying the 2005 primary education curriculum ,have performed the activities suggested in the curriculum so as to improve creative thinking and what problems they've encountered in this process. The study is designed to include questionnaire and interview techniques with survey method. From this reason, mixed method is used which includes quantitative and qualitative models consecutively. The sample of the study is composed of 280 third class primary school teachers who are working in 108 primary school of the central borough of Malatya in 2011-2012 academic year. With the data of the questionnaire results, 10 people are interviewed. Typical case sampling was used for data collection. Data are handled with the questionnaire developed by the researcher. Teachers are determined according the data attained with the questionnaire. Descriptive statistic techniques are used in analyzing quantitative data (frequency, percentage, arithmetical mean, standard deviation), content analysis is used in analyzing qualitative data. As a result, it was found out that third class primary school teachers are mostly using ?Demonstration? method among the suggested techniques in 2005 curriculum for developing creative thinking in Life Sciences Course. Moreover, it is found out that ?Question-Answer Drill? technique is mostly used and ?The Activity of Searching the Subject from Different Sources? and ?I?ve got an Idea? are frequently used among the suggested techniques in the curriculum. On the other hand, it is found out that teachers are mostly using ?Coursebooks and Workbooks? among the suggested materials. It is seen that ?short answer questions? are mostly used in evaluating creative thinking abilities. Also, the most encountered problem is ?Parental Neglect?. Key Words: Primary Education, Life Sciences Course, Thinking, Creative Thinking