Examination of eightth grade students' metaphorical perceptions about geometric objects

In the study, it was aimed to examine the metaphorical perceptions of 8th grade students about geometric objects. The fact that the success in geometry subjects in national and international exams is low for our country, the place of geometric objects in the primary school curriculum, the period when distance education in the Covid-19 process was generally focused on geometry subjects, and the fact that LGS was not responsible for geometry subjects in the second semester necessitated the research. It is important that there are not enough studies on the metaphorical perceptions of 8th grade students. A total of 247 eighth grade students studying in the 8th grade of 6 different secondary schools in the center and villages of a district of Amasya province participated in the research. However, 71 students who did not meet the necessary conditions were eliminated and the views of 176 students were investigated in the research. In the study, the phenomenology design, one of the qualitative research approaches, was used. The Metaphorical Opinion Form created by the researcher was used as a data collection tool. In this form, 7 different questions were asked about the cube, square prism, rectangular prism, triangular prism, right circular cylinder, right pyramid and right cone, which are composed of geometric objects. Question format "Cube, ……. like this. Because it is in the ………………….." format. The validity and reliability of the form was ensured with the help of the opinions of two field experts. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of the data. Two field experts analyzed it and the Miles and Huberman coefficient was found to be 93.75%. In the findings, four different themes such as "similarity", "scientific", "affective" and "experienced" were determined for each geometric object, and 28 for the cube, 43 for the square prism, 43 for the rectangular prism, 35 for the triangular prism, and for the right circular cylinder. 34, 12 different metaphors for the steep pyramid and 16 different metaphors for the steep cone have been developed. In the results, it was seen that the students in general developed consistent metaphors about geometric objects. In addition, it has been determined that there are misconceptions about these objects. It has been noticed that some students think of geometric objects in two dimensions. It is recommended to conduct research on the metaphorical perceptions of geometric objects at different teaching levels and different grade levels, and to take into account the metaphors reached in teaching the subject of geometric objects and preparing materials.