This study seeks to identify elementary school students' views and perceptions of the Life Studies course through verbal and visual instruments. It employs a descriptive phenomenological research design. The study surveyed second-and third-grade students attending one private elementary school and two state elementary schools. The data was collected using a form including open-ended questions prepared by the researchers. The same form asked students to draw a picture of what kind of setting/class they envisioned for the Life Studies course. As part of the study, which incorporated feedback from 146 students, pictures were examined, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 students selected through criterion sampling. The data collected from both the open-ended questions and the pictures and interviews was analyzed using content analysis. According to the research results, the students considered Life Studies a fun course that teaches and facilitates life skills and provides new information; however, they also reported that Life Studies was a boring course because it requires too much writing and they do not like some activities.

The purpose of this study is to compare the current curricula of the life science courses implemented in Turkey and Germany-Hamburg to reveal the similarities and differences between them. Germany-Hamburg was chosen for comparison because the life science course, which is called social sciences course in many countries, taught there has a similar structure to the one taught in Turkey. The common aspects of these two countries make the conclusion more meaningful. Literature review was conducted first to determine the relevant criteria for the comparison between the two countries. In this way, the official documents of both countries were reviewed. Survey method, which is a qualitative research method, was used, and horizontal approach and descriptive approach, which are among comparative educational approaches, were employed. Based on the obtained data, the similarities and differences between the countries were identified with regard to school starting age and compulsory education structure, educational administration and financing, school choice, dress and educational support, the goals of elementary school, the courses taught, and assessment and evaluation. Then the curricula implemented in the two countries were compared in terms of acceptance date, course content, mission/vision, the prescribed skills or competencies, and assessment and evaluation.

This research aims to examine the elementary school teachers' levels of satisfaction in terms of their main field of study based on some demographic variables under such sub-dimensions as teaching staff, counseling, management, resources, computer facilities, courses and curriculum. Quantitative screening method was used in the research. The study group consists of 136 senior prospective primary school teachers from a state university. The data of this study was collected through the "Faculty of Education-Student Satisfaction Scale" developed by Şahin (2009) and the ''Personal Information Form'' prepared by the researchers. The collected data was analyzed by using the SPSS 18.0 package program, and percentage, frequency and arithmetic mean were calculated with descriptive statistical analysis methods. Mann Whitney U Test was used for the variable of gender, and Kruskal Wallis H Test was used for the variables of type of high school of graduation and academic success average. As a result, it was concluded that satisfaction levels of prospective teachers do not vary significantly by their genders and type of high school they graduated but vary by academic grade-point average. It was also found out that the sub-dimension on which the prospective teachers commented most positively was "consultancy services" while the dimension which they commented most negatively was "computer facilities." These findings were discussed within the framework of related literature and similar studies and various suggestions were brought forward.

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