Metaphoric Perceptions on the Concept of 'Social Skills' of Preschool Teachers

Abstract

The aim of this research is to reveal the metaphoric perceptions on the concept of “social skills” of preschool teachers. This study which has phenomenology design, one of the basic qualitative researches, was carried on 46 preschool teachers working in the provinces of Amasya, Corum, Ordu, Samsun, and Tokat. The forms given teachers which were written an expression like “Social skills are like ……. Because………” were used to collect data as “documents” in the study. Content analysis was used in data analysis. It was seen that the preschool teachers generated metaphors such as tree, water, play dough, dough, ball, dessert, traffic, lego, mirror, heartbeat, tumbler, grinder, plastic ball, puppet, Rubik’s cube, living model, cake, mixer, bicycle, octopus, clown, safety belt, bag, soil, spider web, and food regarding the concept of “social skills”. The metaphors produced are categorized as “social skills in terms of their contributions”, “social skills in terms of acquisition processes”, “social skills in terms of the characteristics they have” and “social skills in terms of their indispensability”. Accordingly, a total of 38 different metaphors collected in four categories have been identified. As a result, it has been revealed that preschool teachers have general view of social skills and suggestions were asserted to increase their knowledge, skills and experience from theory to practice.