Preservice Teachers' Attitudes and Metaphor Perceptions towards Mathematics

Abstract

In this study, preservice teachers' attitudes and metaphor perceptions towards mathematics were examined, the relationship between them was investigated and it was determined whether there was a significant difference according to the departments. In this context, in the 2015-2016 academic year, 358 preservice teachers in central Turkey were administered various scales such as "Mathematics attitude scale" ","Personal information form", and "Mathematics is like ..., because ..." and "If a mathematical movie genre (weather conditions) ..., it would be, because ... ". Content analysis was used in the analysis of the qualitative data. Spearman correlation test, Kruskal Wallis-H test and Mann Whitney-U test were used in the analysis of the quantitative data. As a result of the analysis, it has been recognized that the metaphors towards mathematics are divided into the conceptual categories as "Entertainment", "Basic need" "Emotion" and "Problem". There was a positive and strong significant relationship between the attitudes and metaphor perceptions towards mathematics of preservice teachers. Moreover, attitudes and metaphor perceptions towards mathematics were found to differ significantly according to the departments. Furthermore, this study has found that research with more than one metaphor is more effective.