“Mind Maps” in the Metaphors of Geography Teacher Candidates

The purpose of this study is to reveal geography teacher candidates’ perceptions related to “mind maps used in Climatology course” via metaphors. The study has been conducted in Trabzon, TURKEY. The study group consists of 32 first-grade teacher candidates studying at Department of Geography Teaching, Fatih Education Faculty in the spring semester of 2010-2011 academic year. In order for the data collection, metaphor technique has been used. Each teacher candidate participating in the research has been asked to associate “mind maps used in Climatology course” with something and to explain the reasons of their associating. After analyzing the data, the metaphors students created have been gathered under five main categories. These categories, according to their percentages, are (from higher percentage to lower percentage): instructive, improving high-level thinking skills, entertaining, visual and subjective. Those which stress on the “instructive” side of the technique are formed of sub-categories as “summarizing, permanent and guiding”. The sub-categories of the main category “improves high-level thinking skills” are formed of “adjusting the associations, imagination, questioning skills”. As a result of the research, the technique has been found instructive and effective in terms of questioning, imagination, showing the associations. Also the technique’s being entertaining, appealing to the eye, reflecting the individual subjectively are among the results of the research.