Abstract:

This study aims to find out primary school teachers' opinions about the use of cartoons and animations in life science lesson. In accordance with this purpose, case study design from qualitative research models is used. The research data are collected through group discussions in five sessions. The data of the research, which uses criterion sampling from purposive sampling methods, are elicited from 29 primary school teachers who currently teach life science lesson. The data collected for the research are content-analyzed with Maxq. Primary school teachers are found to have been using cartoons and animations for various purposes such as to visualize the subject, to enhance retention in students, to concretize the subject, to increase the attention span, to enable knowledge transfer, to keep the teaching process up-to-date, to support the teaching process, to provide a model and also as a method and technique. Primary school teachers stated that cartoons and animations that are intended to be used in life sciences lesson should feature special heroes and be attention-grabbing, thematic, eye-catching and intriguing in addition to being suitable for the level of students, individual differences, multiple intelligence theory, acquisitions, culture, reality and national notions. Primary school teachers stated that the following points should be paid attention to when using cartoons and animations: messages should be clear, content should be in line with the objectives and goals of the lesson and they should be designed appropriately to give national and moral values as well. In this study, primary school teachers drew attention to some aspects related to the use of cartoons and animations. In this context, professional training can be organized for teachers in order to improve primary school teachers' competencies and skills in terms of using cartoons and animations.