Abstract:

Population and population movements are of global importance in today's world. The situation of the population living in any given region has global implications. The masses that started to migrate due to push and pull factors can disrupt the planning of the states. This migration movement, which is tolerated by some states, is alarming for some states. New situations create new perceptions. For this reason, the aim of this study is to determine the perceptions of secondary school students towards the concept of population and migration. Phenomenology design was used in the study. A semi-structured questionnaire was applied to a total of 226 people, 134 girls and 92 boys, studying in a secondary school in Erzincan. The data were analyzed by content analysis. According to the findings obtained from the study; students produced 72 metaphors related to the concept of “population”, these were collected in 9 different groups. The groups are food, place/place, change, name of life, scientific expression, community, country/city, requirement and multiplicity. The students produced 63 metaphors with the concept of migration, which were collected in 6 different conceptual categories. The groups are action/event group, live group, geographical concept group, settlement / nation group, expression of emotions group and holiday group. As a result of the study, it was found that students produced the most “community” and “human” metaphors related to population; the most “relocation” and “bird” metaphors related to migration. It has been found that there is a decrease in misconceptions as the grade level increases.

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