PRE-SERVICE SCIENCE TEACHERS’ METAPHORICAL PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS EVOLUTION

Metaphor can be described as an expression of a concept in the form of another concept or situation, depending on the symbolic purpose of the language. This study was conducted in order to reveal pre-service science teachers’ perceptions about the concept of "evolution" through metaphors. The treatment group was composed of 99 pre-service teachers who were enrolled in the 3rd and 4th years in Science Education Department in 2017-2018 academic year at Siirt University. Pre-service teachers were requested to fill in missing parts in the following form: “Evolution is similar to ………..because ..........” In first part of this form, they were asked to present a metaphor regarding the concept of "evolution", then, in second part, they were asked to explain the reason for why they came up with that metaphor. 99 pre-service teachers participated in the survey, but 3 forms were not included in the study due to missing data. Participants produced 58 different metaphors. Depending on themes of these metaphors, participants' perceptions on "evolution" were grouped under 6 different categories. Then, these metaphors for different categories were analyzed and interpreted. In the study, one of the qualitative research designs, phenomenology design was used. The obtained data were analyzed by content analysis technique. Participants produced 58 different metaphors. Metaphors are categorized according to their common characteristics and outlooks, and six different conceptual categories have been defined. As a result of the research, 41,66% of the teacher candidates participated in the research described and perceived evolution as "Expression of differentiation and change", 22,92% as "Expression of uncertainty", 13,54% as "Expression of continuity", 9,38% as "expression of science", 8.33% as "expression of life" and 4,16% of them as "expression of need". The categorical results are interpreted. As a conclusion, understanding the concept of evolution through metaphors may be important in terms of perception of the concept of evolution