Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to determine pre-service science teachers' perceptions on biology through metaphors. These pre-service science teachers are 3rd and 4th grade students who have enrolled for General Biology 1 and General Biology 2 courses. For that purpose, the working group of the study consists of 220 students studying in the 3rd and 4th grades at the department of Science Education in Gazi University Faculty of Gazi Education and Artvin Çoruh University Faculty of Education during the spring semester of 2012-13 academic year. In this research, phenomenology design which is one of the qualitative research methods is used. The participants are asked to complete the sentence "If biology were (fruit, sport, car, game, color and season), it would be ................ Because ....................." and to write three words that come to their mind first when biology mentioned. The content analysis is used for the metaphors developed by pre-service science teachers. According to the findings, pre-service science teachers who have participated in the study develop 130 metaphors about biology. These, 130 metaphors are analyzed in 19 different categories and results are interpreted. Consequently, it is determined that the words “living, world, genetic” come to the preservice teachers’ minds at first when they think about biology and they have positive perceptions on biology.

Keywords: