Abstract
METAPHORIC PERCEPTIONS OF PRESERVICE PRESCHOOL TEACHERS ON THE CONCEPT OF “PLAY”
The study aims to determine the perceptions of preservice preschool teachers on the concept of “play” both in terms of their own viewpoint and children’s viewpoint by means of using metaphors. The objective of the study which employs the qualitative research method, is to reveal the current situation in this regard. The members of the study group in the research were selected among the students studying at the Preschool Teacher Education Undergraduate Program at the Education Faculty of a state university through convenience sampling, i.e. one of the purposeful samplings (134).
Metaphors were used for the collection of the research data. In the form prepared to this end, the preservice teachers in the study group were asked to associate the concept of play to a metaphor in terms of their own viewpoints and children’s viewpoint and to explain the reason of having selected that particular metaphor.
In the analysis of the data, the metaphors produced by the preservice teachers on the concept of play from their and children’s viewpoint were listed, and as a result, (9) categories were created in line with their statements in which metaphors beginning with “for me, the concept of play is…” (72) and the metaphors beginning with “for children, the concept of play is…” (54) were used. It was observed that the preservice teachers’ own perception on play and their perception on the children’s viewpoint showed similarities in terms of features of the play which they described as a “fundamental need”, “relaxing and entertaining”.
Keywords
Play, child, metaphor, teacher candidate
