Preservice Science Teachers Metaphoric Perceptions about Chemistry Concept

Abstract

It is of importance to identify how the concept of chemistry is perceived and the meaning assigned to this concept by prospective chemistry teachers. Therefore, the basic qualitative research has been employed in this study whose purpose is to identify metaphorical perceptions about the concept of chemistry of the students of primary school science teaching department. The study has been carried out on 177 prospective teachers attending to the Department of Primary School Science Teaching at the Faculty of Educational Sciences in University located in The data has been collected via survey forms containing an open-ended statement as “Chemistry is like ......... because ............”. The data has been analysed through content analysis technique under such titles as coding and sorting, category development, validity and reliability, and interpretation of the data. The metaphors have been collectedin 21 different categories in terms of common traits of 98 metaphors related to the concept of chemistry developed by the students attending to the department of primary school science teaching and according to the grouping based on the use rationale. The most common metaphors developed by the students are Life, Water, Lifetime, Puzzle, Need, and Love. It has been determined that the meanings assigned to the concept of chemistry by the students are positive in general and have lots of varieties.