Investigation of class teachers' attitudes to life teaching and their opinions on life skills

The purpose of this research is to examine the attitudes of classroom teachers towards teaching Life Sciences and their views on life skills according to the variables of gender, education level, professional seniority and class type. In this study, the relational survey model, one of the quantitative research approaches, was used. The universe of the research consists of classroom teachers working in public primary schools throughout the province of Adıyaman in the 2021-2022 academic year. Simple random sampling method was used in the study. The number of samples was calculated and scales were applied to 254 classroom teachers. In order to collect data in the research, "Life Science Teaching Attitude Scale" developed by Sarıkaya, Özgöl and Yılar (2017), "Life Skills Scale" developed by Bastik (2018) and a personal information form prepared by the researcher were used. The collected data were analyzed in the statistical program. Since the research data did not show a normal distribution, Mann-Whitney U test was used for variables with two categories, Kruskal-Wallis H test was used for variables with three or more categories, and Spearman Correlation test was used to determine t0he relationship between the two scales. In this study, a descriptive statistical analysis showing the averages and standard deviation values of primary school teachers' attitudes towards life studies teaching and their views on life skills is included. According to the results of the analysis, it was seen that the average of the classroom teachers' attitudes towards life studies teaching and their views on life skills was high. Among the sub-dimensions of primary school teachers' attitudes towards life studies teaching, it was determined that the highest level of use was in the sub-dimensions of love, and among the sub-dimensions of their views on life skills, the ability to be healthy and the ability to protect nature and the environment. It has been determined that the attitudes of the classroom teachers towards the teaching of Life Studies show a significant difference in favor of female teachers in the sub-dimension of liking, according to the gender variable. It has been determined that the attitudes of classroom teachers towards Life Studies teaching according to their seniority years show a significant difference according to their professional seniority years, in favor of classroom teachers with 21-30 years of professional seniority. It has been determined that the opinions of the classroom teachers about life skills do not show any difference in terms of gender, educational background, years of professional seniority and type of class they work in. It has been determined that there is a moderate positive and significant relationship between classroom teachers' attitudes towards life studies teaching and their views on life skills. According to these results, it can be said that as classroom teachers' attitudes towards life studies teaching increase, their level of views on life skills will also increase. Key Words: Life Studies Teaching, Life Skills