Abstract:

Classroom, which has a significant part in our educational lives, is one of leading places providing planned learning experiences. It is stated that the type of classroom environment created and encouraged by the teacher can either increase or decrease a student's ability to learn and feel comfortable as a member of the class. The aim of this study is to reveal primary school teachers’ perceptions about the concept of classroom through metaphor analysis. Within frame of this general aim, an answer was sought to the question; “Primary school teachers’ perceptions about the concept of classroom?”. In this way, 72 primary school teachers who work in Rize province who formed the sample of this study were asked to complete the sentence; “Classroom is like…; because…”. Additionally, the teachers asked to give descriptions of their role and what they see themselves as in the classroom. Documents containing primary school teachers’ answers to the open-ended questions were used as data sources and the data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. Findings of the study have revealed that a large number of metaphors is needed to explain concept of classroom as a whole. Furthermore, it is seen that an important part of primary school teachers perceive the classroom as a "warm-friendly" and "different individual together" place. Perceptions of primary school teachers' on the classroom as a “different individual together" place, seem to be in harmony with the understanding of considering students’ individual differences in implemented curricula in Turkey since 2005.

Keywords: