Metaphoric Perceptions of Teachers and Pre-Service Teachers about 4+4+4 Education System

This study aims to determine the perceptions of teachers and pre-service teachers about 4+4+4 education system via the metaphors they have developed. In this study, the opinions of teachers and pre-service teachers are described with qualitative approach. The participants of the study are 137 primary school 1st grade teachers, working in Mugla in the 2012-2013 academic year, and 116 4th grade students, studying at Primary School Teaching Department in the Faculty of Education in Mugla Sitki Kocman University. In the data collection process, teachers and pre-service teachers were required to complete this sentence: "When the characteristics of 4+4+4 are considered, 4+4+4 education system is like …………, because …………..". In the analysis of the data, content analysis technique, one of the qualitative analysis methods, was applied. The perceptions of teachers were separated into 9 categories according to the metaphors teachers and pre-service teachers created about 4+4+4 education system and both the statements mostly used by teachers and pre-service teachers are provided for these categories. These categories are "a continuously changing structure; a system all of whose parts have deficiencies; an application without any preparation and infrastructure work; uncertainty and complication; an application whose future is dark; a useless and inappropriate system; a forcing and imposing application; a graded and systematical structure (positive); meaningless (cannot resemble anything).