The status of classroom teachers' use of teaching materials, strategies, methods and techniques they utilize in life sci̇ences course and their opinions about them

Life sciences course is considered as the first step of the acquisition of citizenship skills at the primary education level, as well as being the premise of many lessons.Within the scope of this course, all kinds of teaching materials, strategies, methods, and techniques that teachers use to enrich the course facilitate learning and increase retainability in learning.Therefore, this study aimed to reveal the status of classroom teachers' use of teaching materials, strategies, methods, and techniques they utilize in life sciences course (LSC), and their opinions. The study was designed in the descriptive review model. It consisted of a total of 375 classroom teachers teaching 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-grades in primary schools of the Ministry of National Education in Tokat province in the 2015-2016 academic year determined through random sampling method, 215 of whom were males and 160 females.The data were collected usinga questionnaire prepared by the researcher andanalyzed using SPSS 17 software package.Descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequencieswere used to determine the status of the participants' utilization of teaching materials, strategies, methods, and techniques and their opinions. Independent Samples t-test was employed to reveal whether the opinions of the participants regarding the use of teaching materials, strategies, methods, and techniques they utilized in LCSs indicated a difference according to gender. Variance analysis (ANOVA) was used to find the significance of differences relating to age, current class taught by the teacher, the school, and the level of education, while Pearson Product-Moment Correlation Coefficient analysis was employed to discover the relationship with variables such as class size and the year of service. The study found that the most frequently utilized teaching materials were textbooks, stationery materials (pencils, scissors, chalk, drawing paper, etc.) and reading texts, whereas the least frequently used materials were smart board, Encarta World Atlas software, and transparencies. It was determined that participants most often used presentation teaching strategy, narrative method, and role-playing method as LSC strategy, method, and technique. In addition, question-answer method, homework, and 5N1K technique were also found to be the most frequently preferred methods and techniques. On the other hand, the study revealed that the tutor learning technique, the bearing technique, and the ice breaking technique were the least preferred techniques by the participants. The participants were found to express opinion that they could associate the subject with daily life by using LSC teaching material, the teaching materials contributed to the success of students, and that students could choose and design teaching material suitable for all their cognitive, affective, and psychomotor skills. In addition, it was observed that the participants considered themselves adequate in choosing appropriate teaching strategies, methods, and techniques for LSC, the majority of them liked using different strategies, methods and techniques, and that they did not see these as a waste of time. It was concluded that the participants' opinions regarding their use of LSC teaching material, strategies, methods, and techniques did not differ significantly according to gender, age, current class taught, the school, and the level of education. In addition, a negative, low, and insignificant relationship was found between the opinions of the participants about their use of teaching materials they utilized in LSC and their year of service and class sizes. A negative, low and significant relationship was found between the participants' opinions about using teaching strategies, methods, and techniques in LSCs and their year of service, while the relationship with the class size was negative, low, and insignificant. According to the findings, it was determined that the participants gave priority to using technological tools and equipment in LSCs, and that the selection of teaching strategies, methods, and techniques were mostly influenced by the course outcomes. Furthermore, it was found that approximately two thirds of the participants had a roomin their school where the tools and equipment were kept, and that they primarily obtained teaching materials from their school.