Abstract:
The main purpose of this study was to research mathematics teacher candidates’ perceptions about the concept
of “mathematics” through the use of metaphors. The research is conducted during 2012-2013 academic year, on
a group of 111 mathematics teacher candidates at the Education Faculty of a University in Turkey. To collect
the research data, each participant was asked to complete the prompt “Mathematics is like . . . because . . .” The
content analysis technique was used in this study in order to evaluate the data collected. As a result of the data
analysis, it was found that 67 valid metaphors were developed by the participants. These metaphors were
grouped under 14 categories. According to these categories, about 77% of mathematics teacher candidates
perceived mathematics as “Limitless”, “Interconnected”, “Basically needed”, “Fun”, “Cumulative”,
“Indispensable” figure and as a figure which laid the “foundation for other sciences”. The remaining 23%
perceived mathematics as “Hard-to-understand”, “Guiding”, “Universal language”, “Requiring continuity”, “Yet
to be solved”, “Mind developing” and “Having single correct answer.”
