THE METAPHORS OF PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS ABOUT THE CONCEPT OF GEOMETRY

The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of prospective elementary mathematics teachers about geometry via metaphors. Participants of the study consist of 100 prospective elementary mathematics teachers at Sinop University, Department of Elementary Mathematics Education in Turkey. The data of the research has been obtained by completing the following sentence for each teacher candidate: “Geometry is like …; because …”. Content analysis is used for the evaluation of the research data. A total of 53 different metaphors are produced by the participants and these metaphors are divided into a total of eight categories. As a result, it is understood that mostly “Puzzle” metaphor is produced and the category “Understanding Geometry and Strategy Use” has the most metaphors.