Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Metaphorical Perceptions Towards The Conceptions of Genes

ABSTRACT This study was conducted in order to reveal pre-service science teachers’ perceptions about the concept of "gene" through metaphors. The treatment group was composed of 99 pre-service teachers who were enrolled in the 3rd and 4th years in Science Education Department in 2016-2017 academic year at Siirt University. Pre-service teachers were requested to fill in missing parts in the the following form: “Gene is similar to ………..because ..........” In first part of this form, they were asked to present a metaphor regarding the concept of "gene", then, in second part, they were asked to explain the reason for why they came up with that metaphor. 99 pre-service teachers participated in the survey, but 5 forms were not included in the study due to missing data. Participants produced 67 different metaphors. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted by content analysis method. Depending on themes of these metaphors, participants' perceptions on "gene" were grouped under 7 different categories. As a result of this analysis, it was found that 22.4% of pre-service teachers participated in the study viewed 'gene' as "expression of personality", 19.1% as "expression of necessity", 17.02% as "expression of ambiguity", 15.95% as "expression of production", 14.9% perceived "as expression of life", 6.8% as " expression of continuity" and 4.26% "as expression of coincidence".Then, these metaphors for different categories were analyzed and interpreted. Key Words: Metaphor, gene, science education, perception, Pre-Service teachers