Abstract:

The aim of this research was to reveal the perceptions of secondary school 8th grade students about the science laboratory concept through metaphors. This research was carried out according to the phenomenology (phenomenological) design, which is one of the qualitative research methods. The study group of the research consisted of a total of 38 8th grade students studying in two secondary school in Trabzon's Çarşıbaşı and Rize's Çayeli districts. The metaphor form was used as a data collection tool. Data were obtained by students' answering the metaphor statement which is “Science laboratory…………….. like / similar. Because…………………………..” in the metaphor form. In the first part of the metaphor statement, the students were asked to compare the science laboratory concept to a concept they know, and in the second part, the students were asked to express the reason of the analogy they made in the first part in the part starting with because. The data obtained from the metaphor form were analyzed by content analysis. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was determined that the students produced 39 metaphors in total. These metaphors were coded and 6 different categories were reached from these codes. It was seen that students mostly expressed the black hole (3) and amusement park (3) metaphors among the metaphors for the science laboratory concept. When the findings were examined according to categories, it was seen that the students formed the metaphor the most in the “offer variety” category (10). It was observed that the students generally perceived the science laboratory concept positively. As a result of the research, it was suggested to conduct studies on how the science laboratory perceptions of middle school students are according to their education levels and gender.

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