Game based learning (GBL) help students improve problem-solving skills and make it possible for them to interpret their society, nature and the world around them through experiences. Games provide information in a relevant context or setting. That is why it is very important for the social studies courses, in-class leisure activities, games and physical activities which aim to train students as active members of a classroom. Using games in courses encourage reflection and comprehension of the learning. The purpose of this study is to understand elementary school teachers' views on GBL related to elementary school courses. 24 elementary school teachers from the schools located in districts with low, middle and high socio-economic levels in Ankara/Turkey participated in this qualitative study. The data of the study were collected by using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using descriptive analysis. According to the findings of the study, the elementary school teachers believe that content of the social studies course; in-class leisure activities, engaging child literature, games and physical activities were suitable for using GBL in the classroom. GBL activities were exemplified as e-learning activities, creative drama activities, digital games, values education and character education. Teachers experienced problems about time planning, students' non-cooperative behaviors, and teachers' insufficient background about organizing and designing games as well as economic problems and technical obstacles in related to GBL.

Creativity is the critical point to developing innovative and effective citizens and children in learning social studies. The purpose of this study is to explore how creativity is promoted in social studies classrooms for young children and to research teachers' opinions and interpretations of creativity in Turkish elementary schools. The study was conducted with in-depth interviews, teacher observation, and teacher drawings. The participants included 33 Grade -1 to Grade 4 (K1-K4) teachers, all of whom taught "life science" which is a key and preliminary subject for social studies from Grade 1 to Grade 3, and social studies for Grade 4 in central Turkey. The case study was used as a qualitative methodology. The data was analyzed using MAXQDA-11. The findings revealed that teachers were highly motivated and eager to nurture creativity in their students' social studies learning in their implication for practice. They also indicated some obstacles regarding low-quality curriculum and instruction, teachers' negative perceptions in promoting creativity, and finally a lack of teacher flexibility, freedom, and well-qualified professional development.

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The aim of this study is to find out, with the metaphor technique, the impressions and images of preschool teacher candidates and elementary school teacher candidates about "special education". The study group consists of 93 (43 males and 50 females) senior class elementary school teacher candidates and 62 (22 males and 40 females) senior class preschool teacher candidates who took Special Education course at Ahi Evran University during 2015-2016 academic year. The data obtained were analyzed with the content analysis in accordance with the qualitative research model "phenomenology". Thus, the data analyzed made up 6 categories reflecting the images of the teachers regarding "special education". The most commonly used metaphors are "the special education as strengthening and repairing" and "the special education as providing social awareness" for preschool teacher candidates. On the other hand, the most commonly used metaphor is "the special education as work of attention, self-abnegation, effort" for elementary school teacher candidates. Teacher candidates also produced negative metaphors on behalf of "the special education as hard and difficult construction" category. Extended Abstract PurposeEach child is different from another one and he/she has individual differences. However, a reasonable portion of children have special needs. They could have disabilities in a particular area such as learning difficulties, mental retardation, special gift, behavior disorders, emotional inefficacy etc. They are called "children with special needs" in the *

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