Abstract
The purpose of this study is to uncover the perceptions of the elementary school teacher candidates who have related to the concept of “drama” through metaphors. The study group consisted of 129 third-year students taking the “Drama” course during the fall semester of the 2012-2013 academic year in the Department of Elementary School Teaching of Necmettin Erbakan University’s Faculty of Education. 66 of the teacher candidates, who participated in the study, were females and the 63 of them were males. The data of the study was obtained by students completing the sentence of “Drama is like… because…”. To do this, the teacher candidates were given a blank sheet of paper with the aforementioned sentence written at the top of the paper and were asked to express their thoughts by using that statement and by concentrating on only one metaphor. During the analysis of the data, frequency, percentage calculations and content analysis which is a qualitative method, were used. The process of analyzing and interpreting the metaphors developed by the teacher candidates was carried in five phases: (1) naming stage, (2) screening and clarifying phase, (3) compiling and category development phase, (4) proving the validity and reliability phase, (5) transferring the data into the computer. According to the findings of the study, the teacher candidates developed 30 valid metaphors related to the concept of “Drama”. These metaphors were then grouped under five different conceptual categories after examining them in terms of common characteristics.
Highlights
Today, education systems follow a student-centered approach not a teacher-centered approach
The purpose of this study is to uncover the perceptions of the elementary school teacher candidates have related to the concept of “drama” through metaphors
According to the findings obtained from the content analysis, the 30 metaphors created by the teacher candidates were grouped under the five categories of reflection, teaching and informing, entertaining, collaboration and expressing different roles and feelings
Summary
Education systems follow a student-centered approach not a teacher-centered approach. What is needed from the students is for them to be individuals who are active and confident and who know the ways to reach information, apply the knowledge and skills they have learned, decide, take responsibilities, communicate, work collaboratively and learn-bydoing. For students to gain these characteristics, student-centered methods should be used in classrooms. One of the student-centered methods that forces the students to be active, allows them to learn-by-doing and helps them to communicate positively with others and socialize is drama. Drama is action situations and improvisations that the participants create based on their own creative inventions, original thoughts, memories and knowledge without a prior written text (San, 1999). Drama is a teaching method among contemporary methods that is student-centered and that makes the learner active and ensures permanent learning by learning-by-doing and having fun (Maden, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
