Comparison of "Learning," "Teaching," and "Teacher" Metaphors of Pre-Service and In-Service Science Teachers

The study aims to examine science teachers' and pre-service science teachers' metaphors about learning, teaching, and teacher concepts and compare their metaphors. The study is designed according to phenomenology research design. The study participants consisted of 62 in-service science teachers working in government schools and 45 pre-service science teachers attending a government university's science teaching department. The data was collected during the 2017-2018 academic year. The participants were requested to fill in the blanks of three statements: "Learning is like…..; because …….", "Teaching is like…..; because…….", "Teacher is like….; because……". The results displayed that teachers and pre-service teachers generally have different meaning categories. While teachers expressed the concept of “teacher,” they took their own experiences and professional lives into consideration since they are actively working as teachers. On the other hand, pre-service teachers expressed their own teachers and their behaviors while defining the concept of “teacher.” Similarly, when we take a look at the results related to the concept of “student,” while teachers started off with the children they taught, pre-service teachers talked about their own experiences since they are students.