Metaphorical Perceptions of Science Lesson Teacher Candidates of STEM Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to determine the metaphoric perceptions of science lesson teacher candidates of STEM education. The study group of the study consists of 69 third year students who were receiving education a state university’s Science Teaching Program in the spring semester of 2016-2017 academic year. The participants were given a form and asked to complete the following sentence: “When we think about the characteristics of STEM education, STEM education resembles -------------- because --------------------.” For the analysis of data, the content analysis technique was used. As a result of the analysis of data, the participants produced 51 valid metaphors. These metaphors were placed in 6 conceptual categories in terms of their common characteristics. When the metaphors produced by the students and their reasons are analyzed, it was seen that they have positive thoughts about STEM education and view STEM education as a multidisciplinary approach which allows students to learn through doing things and experiencing them in the process of producing new things and targets educating individuals who can produce solutions for problems. In addition, it was concluded in the study that teacher candidates do not have a negative perception of STEM education.

Keywords

• metaforik algı, stem eğitimi, fen bilgisi öğretmen adayı