Metaphorical perceptions of middle school 8th grade students towards mathematics course and mathematics teacher

The purpose of this study is to determine the perceptions of middle school 8th grade students towards mathematics lesson and mathematics teachers with the help of metaphors. Metaphorical perceptions of the students towards mathematics and mathematics teachers are examined in this study. The participants of the research were 170 students who were 8th graders in 2017-2018 Educational Year, a secondary school in the city center of Elazığ. 68 were female and 102 were male of the 170 participants. The data of the study was collected with the help of the "Metaphors of Mathematics and Mathematics Teachers Survey" which was prepared by the researcher. Although the model of the research was a case study, the reason of the survey was to keep the sample group wider. The data collection tool used in the research consisted of 2 sections. In the first section, participants were asked to tick up their gender. In the other section, two questions were asked in order to understand the thoughts of 8th grade students about mathematics and mathematics teachers; "Mathematics is like this; because…………" and "Mathematics teacher is like this; because…………" The participants were reminded that the results of this study would be used only for scientific purposes and not to be shared with the third parties. The participants were asked to answer the questions in an objective manner by thinking about what the first analogy came to their mind when they consider mathematics and mathematics teachers. The data obtained from the study were evaluated by content analysis from qualitative data analysis methods. In the research, the process of evaluating and interpreting metaphors, which were indicated by 8th grade students, was carried out in 5 stages. The researcher followed the steps of naming, screening, coding and editing of the themes, categorization of metaphors and transferring the data to the computer, respectively. According to the results, metaphors related to mathematics and mathematics teachers were gathered under 6 conceptual categories in terms of common characteristics. In general, the metaphors that were used by students for mathematics gathered under the category "Negative Judgments for Mathematics Course" and the metaphors for mathematics teachers were generally referred to "Positive Judgments for Mathematics Teacher" category. According to the findings, the majority of the students see mathematics as a challenging, complex, untraceable and boring course, while they are thinking that the mathematics teacher is a source of fun, understanding and has kind heart and happiness. To sum up; it is determined that the 8th grade students have negative perceptions towards mathematics course while they have very positive perceptions towards mathematics teacher according to this study.