Primary school students’ metaphors about the concept of mathematics

Abstract

Metaphors, though known as language term, are used to reveal the perceptions of individuals currently. They reflect ideas and perceptions like a mirror. Use of metaphors may help to determine perceptions of individuals especially on difficult concepts. This study aimed to reveal the primary students’ perceptions related with mathematics through metaphors. Study was conducted during 2016-2017 school year with 335 primary school students (182 third-graders and 153 fourth-graders) from two public schools located in Istanbul. Each student was asked to complete the blanks in given sentence of “Mathematics is like…, because…”. The results collected from the students were categorized and the similar metaphors were grouped. Accordingly, thirty-five and twenty-nine different metaphors collected from third and grade students, respectively, were further analyzed. The common metaphors created by third and fourth grade students are “Game”,” Life” and “Puzzle”. It seems that both third and fourth grade students have positive perceptions towards mathematics and most of them find mathematics enjoyable. © The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology.