The Investigation of Prospective Mathematics Teachers’ Metaphorical Perceptions Regarding Technology

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate prospective mathematics teachers’ perceptions related to technology. The behaviors, meanings, perceptions and experiences related to concepts can be defined through phenomenological approach. For this reason, phenomenological research design was used in this study and the prospective mathematics teachers’ metaphors for aspects of technology were collected as data. In order to explore the metaphors for aspects of technology, the prospective teachers were asked to provide written answers to questions such as: “Technology is like …, because…”. The participants in the study were second-, third- and fourth-grade prospective teachers studying in the Mathematics Education Department of the Necatibey Faculty of Education at Balıkesir University. They were chosen by simple random sampling. The qualitative data related to the prospective teachers’ metaphorical perceptions were coded thematically, and frequency and percentages were calculated. With this study, it has been revealed that the perceptions of the prospective mathematics teachers regarding technology are quite diversified and mostly positive. In this study, it has been concluded that metaphors can be used as an important research tool to explain the perceptions of prospective teachers regarding “technology”.

Keywords: mathematics education, metaphors, prospective mathematics teachers, technology.