مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - Metaphor Analysis of Secondary School Students’ Perceptions Related to Technology Concept

Abstract :

The purpose of this study is to examine the secondary school students’ perceptions related to technology by using metaphors and to assess these perceptions in terms of grade level and gender. The data was collected in spring semester of 2012-2013 academic year. 191 students studying at sixth and eighth grades of a secondary school in Ankara participated in this study. Due to the inadequate metaphoric structure or lack of answer, 28 students data was not analyzed. So 163 students’ data was analyzed (6th=75, 8th=88). Data was analyzed by using content analysis approach to determine students’ perceptions related to technology. Conceptual categories which are obtained from content analysis were recorded to SPSS. At this stage, The Chi Square test from nonparametric tests was used to assess the students perceptions related to technology in terms of gender and grade level. As a result, it was found that students used 68 different metaphors in order to define the technology. These metaphors were grouped under eight conceptual categories and students’ perceptions related to technology were generally positive. In addition, it is found that there is statistically significant relationship between students’ perceptions and their grade levels. Conversely, this statistically significant relationship wasn’t observed about gender. As a result, due to acceleration of the developments in technology in the modern world and one of the important aims of science education is to develop technology awareness, the studies related to determine students perceptions about technology must be continued.