The Determination of Computer Metaphors of Pre-School Students

This research has been conducted to reveal the preschool students’ perceptions in relation with metaphors about the computer. For this purpose, the prepared interview form was applied to 50 preschool students. Were interviewed one on one with students, “What is like a computer? So why is it like …..?” were asked to students for the data. The data of research were analyzed by using the content analysis method. Findings of the research in 19 different metaphors are manufactured. The created metaphors were categorized considering their common properties and accommodations. These metaphors have been classified under two conceptual categories: “computer in appearance” and “functionally computer”. Preschool students produced 48 valid metaphors and 68,75% of the these metaphors representing appearance of computer and 31,25% of the these metaphors representing functions of computers. The “tablet” (12) metaphor has been most repeated by students. No negative metaphor was observed about computer among the metaphors created by preschool students. This created conceptual categories were examined in the result that the differences in terms of gender. This metaphorical study can create ideas about computer training and use in preschool for teachers, educational administrators, programmers and software developers