Exploring of Prospective Teachers ’ Metaphoric Perceptions About the Concepts of “ Physical Education Course ” and “ Physical Education Teacher ”

The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of prospective physical education teachers on the concepts of “physical education teacher” and “physical education course” through the metaphors. In this study which was structured with the approach of qualitative research, the model of phenomenology, which defines the common meaning of the experience of individuals related to a concept was used. 167 prospective physical education teachers who were enrolled at the department of Physical Education and Sports Education at the Sports Sciences Faculty of Ankara University were included in the study. The content analysis method was used to analyze the data of this study which were collected via the method of semi-structured forms. Within this context, the metaphors formed by the prospective teachers were divided into categories based on their common properties in MS Excel, and a frequency calculation was made. As a result of the analysis, the metaphors that were formed in relation to both the concepts were collected under four categories. It was concluded that the prospective teachers perceived the physical education course as a course that provides children with fun and pleasing moments, relaxes them and is needed for the healthy continuation of their lives, while they perceived a physical education teacher as a person who is found familiar by students, helps them, guides them and is a multi-dimensional person who does everything.


Introduction
Metaphors, on which very important studies have been conducted in several fields where the emotional and aesthetical experience of people were studied, are main schemas that not only reflect the flowery aspect of language but also conceptualize the own world of people and their actions (Gibbs, 2008, p. 3).A metaphor is the description of a statement that emerges as a result of the combination of two different concepts (Donoghue, 2014, p. 52).In other words, metaphors which are the indirect expression of concepts rather than directly expressing concepts by themselves may constitute mutual components by the effects of the aspects of the environment that is lived in.The importance of metaphors in the process of structuring information is prevalently accepted as a form of thinking and for establishing a bridge between perception and abstraction (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999).Metaphors, which constitute a strong instrument of language for reflecting thoughts and beliefs that are in deep, were studied with different forms in the field of education (Ervas, Gola, & Rossi, 2017, pp. 250-264).In this sense, metaphors in teacher education are a supportive tool as they would provide ideas about the behaviors of prospective teachers when they will become teachers (Goldtstein, 2005).Defining the beliefs and perceptions of prospective teachers through their undergraduate education may provide an important flow of information to people who work in the field of teacher education in terms of the transformation of their perceptions that do not suit the understanding of education in the 21th century.Looking through this aspect, metaphors may function as a pedagogic support in teacher education (Lynch & Fisher-Ari, 2017;Saban, 2006).After discovering the metaphors created by prospective teachers, it is needed to compare these to strong and meaningful experiences that would lead them to question their beliefs that are formed in years again (Matanin & Collier, 2003).In this sense, metaphors are used prevalently in studies that are conducted with prospective teachers based on their power in revealing the real perceptions and beliefs (Akcay, 2016;Aslan, 2015;Aykac & Celik, 2014;Ergin, Sahin, & Erisen, 2013;Lynch & Fisher-Ari, 2017;Tannehill & MacPhail, 2014).
The course of physical education and a physical education teacher are concepts that attract attention in Turkey with their perceptions in the society.While a physical education teacher is perceived by some as a person who gives a ball to children and stands aside, the course of physical education may be perceived as a free course where children play freely or not everyone can find an opportunity of equal participation (Karasahinoglu, 2015;Koc & Sahin, 2018;Scrabis-Fletcher & Silverman, 2017;Sofi & Yoncalik, 2015).Investigating the reasons for these negative perceptions of the physical education course and physical education teachers in multiple aspects and in depth may be a significant step in solving the problem in this issue.For the transformation of these negative perceptions related to a course and its teacher that has an important place in children's life-long physical activity habit and multifaceted development, firstly, physical education teachers and institutions that train physical education teachers have important duties.In this sense, understanding the perceptions of individuals who have grown up in this society and reached an undergraduate level as prospective teacher regarding the courses they will be responsible for and the profession they will take on will make it easier for us to find new ways in transforming incorrect thoughts (Haggis, 2004).One of the duties of teacher trainers is preparing a learning environment that is suitable and supportive regarding the roles that prospective teachers will encounter when they start their profession (Goldstein, 2005).Metaphors are one of the important strategies for preparation of these roles (Bullough & Stokes, 1994).At this point, it would be possible to discover the metaphoric perceptions of prospective teachers regarding the concepts unique to their field at the first stages of teacher training (Eren & Tekinarslan, 2013).The literature review showed that studies regarding the concept of a teacher have prevailed (Eren & Tekinarslan, 2013;Koc, 2014;Saban, 2004;Yilmaz, Gocen, & Yilmaz, 2013).In this context, there is a need for revealing the field-specific perceptions with different points of view.Besides studies where the concepts of the course of physical education and physical education teachers were investigated through the metaphors created by secondary school students and school administrators, it will be possible to fill the gap in the field by investigating this issue through the metaphors created by prospective physical education teachers (Ilgar & Cihan, 2018;Koc & Sahin, 2018).
When the literature is reviewed, although there are studies with different perspectives and different study groups about these concepts, studies reflecting the opinions of the prospective teachers are limited (Korur & Sozen, 2018;Stylianou, Kulinna, Cothran, & Kwon, 2013;Yilmaz, Esenturk, Demir, & Ilhan, 2017).Discovering the perceptions of prospective physical education teachers on the concepts of "physical education course" and "physical education teacher" through metaphors and finding out about their thinking structures are important processes in terms of rethinking about how education should be and multidimensionally investigating the current concepts of physical education courses and teachers (Carlson, 2001;Saban, 2006).The past thoughts and beliefs of prospective teachers shaped because of their learning experiences are also an important factor on the perspectives and behaviors of the course (Joram & Gabriele, 1998;Yuksel & Tuncel, 2017).Faulkner et al. (2004) concluded that primary school teachers have beliefs and past experiences on the basis of physical education course objectives.Because of the strength of these past beliefs about these issues teacher education programmes have difficulty in the change of prospective physical education teachers' beliefs (Matanin & Collier, 2003).The most important factors that determine the prospective teacher's future physical education practices are personal physical education experiences, perceptions and quality of undergraduate education (Morgan & Hansen, 2008).In this sense, metaphors are powerful tools that both reflect personal experiences and reveal their perceptions.It is possible to develop a teacher trainee's thoughts, images and practices using metaphors.In this respect, the discovery of the metaphorical perceptions of prospective teachers in undergraduate education may provide important information to increase the quality of undergraduate education.Feiman-Nemser, Cochran-Smith, McIntyre and Demers (2008) stated that teacher education programs should include practices for teacher candidates to express their prejudices and beliefs clearly and provide opportunities to explain these beliefs (p.719).One of the most important obstacles at this point is that, due to the power of the initial beliefs about these concepts, teacher education programs cannot turn prospective teachers' beliefs and return to the wrong thoughts or practices they have experienced before (Matanin & Collier, 2003).Metaphor studies can be important for understanding prejudices, beliefs and perceptions about such situations.Apart from these, in teacher education, metaphors can be used to monitor important changes in students' understanding and disposition over time, to understand whether students need additional support, to construct a relational and holistic learning, and to interpret the hidden meanings of metaphors (Lynch & Fisher-Ari, 2017).
In this context, the purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of prospective teachers about the concepts of "physical education course" and "physical education teacher" through the metaphors.Answers were sought for the following questions in this regard: 1) What are the metaphors formed by the prospective physical education teachers about the concept of physical education course?What are the categories that could be derived from these metaphors?
2) What are the metaphors formed by the prospective physical education teachers about the concept of physical education teacher?What are the categories that could be derived from these metaphors?

Research Model
This study used the phenomenology model with the purpose of determining the perceptions of prospective teachers on the concepts of physical education course and teacher through the metaphors.Phenomenological studies define the common meaning of the experience of persons regarding a concept (Creswell & Creswell, 2017).Phenomenology focuses on the phenomena that we are aware of but not have a deep and detailed understanding on (Yildirim & Simsek, 2013).According to phenomenology, which emphasizes that the truth and knowledge is based on the mind, knowledge arises as a result of the discovery of perceptions and experiences (Baden & Major, 2013, p. 56).

Participants
In the 2016-2017 academic year, 167 prospective physical education teachers enrolled in the Department of Physical Education and Sports Teaching at the Faculty of Sport Sciences of Ankara University were included in the study voluntarily.The maximum diversity and convenience sampling methods were preferred while selecting the participants.In this context, it was aimed to achieve diversity by selecting both male and female students from different class levels.The prospective teachers in the sample were enrolled at the same school as the researchers.The prospective teachers who participated in this study are referenced with an abbreviation as P.T.1.1 in the results section.In the abbreviation, P.T. represents the phrase "prospective teacher", the first number represents the prospective teacher's class level, and the second number represents their sequence number.As some metaphors that were created were not used for different reasons, the total metaphor numbers formed in the categories differ.Some data of the participants are shown in Table 1.

Data Collection
Semi-structured forms that were developed by the researchers were used for the participants to describe the concepts of "physical education course" and "physical education teacher" based on their experiences in their own world.The form consisted of two semi-structured statements as "a physical education teacher is like ………; because……………" and "the physical education course is like ………; because……………" Besides this, information was collected based on the gender and class level information of the participants.After the forms were distributed to the students, a brief explanation was made regarding the concept of "metaphors", and one example was provided for each of the two concepts.While filling out the forms, an environment where participants can focus is provided.It took approximately 15 min for the participants to produce metaphors on and exemplify these concepts.In the semi-structured forms, the word "like" was used in the formation of the metaphors, while the word "because" was used in the formation of the justification and explanation of the metaphors.

Data Analyses
The data were analyzed by content analysis.At this stage, the analysis of the metaphors created by the participants on the two concepts was achieved in two steps.In the first step, after all the metaphors that were created were listed, the concepts that were not clear or not consistent with the objective were removed from the list by checking the clarity of the metaphor and its compliance with the part that came after the "because" part.In the second stage, after the list was revised again, all metaphors created for the concepts of physical education course and physical education teacher were gathered together by thinking of these as codes based on reflecting common characteristics, and then, categories that represented the unification of these codes were created.At this stage, the metaphors that did not have the adequate numbers or diversity were excluded, although they were correctly created and justified.The MS Excel software was used to determine the distributions and frequencies of the metaphors that were obtained.As the perceptions did not clearly differentiate based on the gender variable, this variable was not considered at the analysis stage, while the class level variable was considered to interpret a few findings only.
In order to determine the reliability and validity of the study, attention was paid for having the consensus of the three researchers at the stage of deciding upon the categories that reflected the common characteristics of the codes, the data analysis section is presented in detail and step by step, and direct quotes are reported (Savin-Baden & Major, 2013, pp. 476-480).

Results
The metaphoric perceptions of the participants in the study regarding the concept of physical education course were assessed under the categories of "physical education course as an opportunity to relax and have fun" and "physical education course as a need for life".The metaphoric perceptions on the concept of physical education teacher were assessed under the categories of "a physical education teacher as a person who is found familiar and guides students" and "a multidimensional person who does everything".

Metaphoric Perceptions About the Concept of Physical Education Course
Table 2 shows the distributions of the categories that were developed for the concept of physical education course, the numbers of the metaphors that were created, the numbers of the people who created them and class levels.As seen in Table 3, the participants mostly created metaphors such as "playground", "social activity", "games, "chocolate" and "music".The other metaphors that were created show that the physical education class was seen as an opportunity for relaxing, having fun and having a pleasant experience.Some statements of the participants regarding the metaphors in this category were as the following: "The physical education class is like a playground, because it is an instructive class which does not have an age limit but helps you have a fun time."(P.As it may be understood from the example quotes, the metaphors were associated with views such as that this course is fun, pleasing and relaxing.The finding that the metaphor of a "free class", formed even by low numbers of 1st year students, that is seen in the last quote is striking in the sense that perceptions show their effects in years and undergraduate education is a really important opportunity for the transformation of these perceptions.
3.1.2Physical Education Course as a Need for Life 26 metaphors were created by a total of 74 persons in the category of physical education course as a need for life.The metaphors that were created in this category and their frequencies are shown in Table 4.As seen in Table 4, it was seen that the participants created metaphors such as "water", "life", "oxygen", "drugs" and "smartphone".In addition to these, the metaphors that were created reveal that the physical education course is seen as an important need in the continuation of a child's life.Some of the statements of the participants regarding the metaphors in this category are shown below: "The physical education course is like water, because just as water is a need to survive, the physical education course is indispensable for our lives."(P.T.1.34) "The physical education course is like life.It teaches taking solid steps and responsibility in the class."(P.T. 4.28) "The physical education course is like oxygen, because it has a great role in life."(P.T.1.37) "The physical education course is like a drug, because it leads children to become physically and mentally healthy."(P.T.4.17) "The physical education course is like a smartphone, because we always need it."(P.T.2.14) As seen in the exemplary quotes, metaphors were explained over the role and importance of preparation of the child by the course for life.At this point, the finding that the metaphors of especially the 4th year students were regarding need and preparation for life may carry the meaning that they had more dominant tendencies towards perceiving the physical education course as a need in a period where they got closer to starting their profession and applying their first practices regarding teaching.

Metaphoric Perceptions About the Concept of Physical Education Teacher
Table 5 shows the categories that were developed in regard to the concept of physical education teacher, the numbers of the metaphors that were created and the numbers of the people who created these.As seen in Table 6, the participants mostly created metaphors such as "parents", "friend", "compass", "doctor" and "car".The metaphors that were created besides these suggested that physical education teachers were perceived as persons who are seen familiar, needed and guide students within their capabilities.Some of the statements of the participants regarding the metaphors in this category may be found below: "The physical education teacher is like a parent, because they behave as close as your parents, they protect like a father and love like a mother."(P.T.3.8) "The physical education teacher is like a friend, because they listen to us, understand us and create solutions.We go to them first whenever we have a problem."(P.T. 2.28) "The physical education teacher is like a compass, because they determine and direct the sports-related characteristics of the students."(P.T. 2. 45) "The physical education teacher is like a doctor, because they make the first intervention when something happens to someone."(P.T. 4.7) "The physical education teacher is like a car, because they lead us to where we want to go, to a goal."(P.T.

1.7)
As seen in the exemplary quotes, the metaphors were explained via the characteristics of the physical education teacher that are seen more familiar, run for others' help and direct others.The finding that this metaphorical perception that was found was similar on all class levels showed that these aspects of physical education teachers did not change.

The Physical Education Teacher as a Multidimensional Person Who Does Everything
30 metaphors were created by a total of 61 persons for the category of the physical education teacher as a multidimensional person who does everything.The metaphors that were formed under this category and their frequencies are shown in Table 7.As seen in Table 7, the participants mostly created metaphors such as "joker", "bee", "octopus", "smartphone" and "spine".The metaphors that were created showed that physical education teachers were perceived as people who are multidimensional, do all things and have different characteristics.Some of the statements of the participants regarding the metaphors in this category were as follows: "The physical education teacher is like a joker, because they run towards every task at the school."(P.T.

3.34)
"The physical education teacher is like an octopus, because they try to cope with several problems simultaneously and run towards every task."(P.T. 2.35) "The physical education teacher is like a smartphone, because they solve every problem easily and are knowledgeable in every topic."(P.T. 1.15) "The physical education teacher is like a bee, because they work a lot and run towards every task."(P.T.

2.57)
"The physical education teacher is like the spine, because they represent the school in several branches and lead it to stand up by successes."(P.T. 4.3) Considering the metaphors that were created and the quotes, it may be stated that the physical education teacher is perceived as a person who does other things at the school in addition to physical education and becomes prominent in different tasks at the school.This topic should be rethought in the perspective of what the physical education teacher does as extracurricular activities, and it is needed to discuss upon whether or not this is a perception that is needed to have.

Discussion and Conclusion
This study aimed to explore the perceptions of prospective teachers on the concepts of physical education course and physical education teacher.This discovery process used metaphors with the purpose of revealing the perceptions.Using metaphors in the process of teacher education is a pedagogically practical strategy in terms of revealing the tendencies, and the changes in the approaches of students, defining the professional identities, exploring the beliefs about teaching and learning, producing meaningful heuristics towards students' needs and determining the nature of the semantic relationships formed by students (Leavy, McSorley, & Boté, 2007;Lynch & Fisher-Ari, 2017;Saban, 2006;Thomas & Beauchamp, 2011).In this context, the metaphors that were created towards the two different concepts in the study were gathered under four categories.The first concept of physical education course consisted of the categories of "physical education course as an opportunity for relaxing and having fun" and "physical education course as a need for life".In the light of the results that were obtained, it may be stated that the physical education course was perceived as a course that has an important role in life, teaches people to take responsibility and develops the child multidimensionally, in addition to being a course that relaxes children by allowing them to have fun and pleasant moments.In the study where they investigated the metaphorical perceptions of students on the physical education course, Yilmaz et al. (2017) found that students perceived the physical education course as a field of freedom, source of living, an educational activity and a field of competition.At this point, while especially the metaphors of freedom and source of living were similar to the categories of physical education course as relaxation and having fun and physical education as a need for life based on their meanings, the perception of a field of competition differs.Besides this, in a study where the metaphorical perceptions of 7th-grade students on the course of physical education were investigates, the metaphors were categorized as positive and negative, and the most frequently used metaphors in the study where 98.28% of the participants created positive metaphors were having fun and relaxation (Koc & Sahin, 2018).
While the age group that was studied in this study was different, it was seen that the metaphors that were prominent in regard to the course of physical education were similar to those formed by our participants.In a study which investigated the metaphorical perceptions of school administrators towards the concept of physical education from another perspective, the course was associated with the metaphors of activity, strength, socializing, relaxation and needs (Ilgar & Cihan, 2018).While the relaxation and need metaphors formed by school administrators were similar to those created in our study, the strength and socializing metaphors were not similar to ours.In this context, the perception of the physical education lesson with its fun and enjoyable aspects reveals theoretically a perception that is appropriate to the nature of the course.However, the metaphors that were created in relation to relaxation reflect the perceptions that should be reevaluated by teacher educators in terms of showing a tendency towards corresponding to free time.It should be separately researched and discussed whether or not the past physical education experiences and the flexible and loose attitudes of their physical education systems lie behind these metaphors.The reason for the inclusion of this situation was that, though the numbers were low, the "free class" metaphor was formed, and the course was associated with being freed.This result indicates that the perception of physical education course as empty course is still an issue that cannot be fully solved and should be studied.
The second concept of physical education teacher consisted of the two categories of "physical education teacher as a person who is seen familiar, runs to the help of others and guides students" and "physical education teacher as a multidimensional person who does everything".In the light of the results that were obtained, it may be argued that the physical education teacher was perceived as a multidimensional person who takes on different task at the school outside their curriculum in addition to being a person who is seen as familiar as a parent or a friend, runs for the help of others in the case of a problem and guides and directs the individual.At this point, in the study they conducted with prospective teachers from different branches on the concept of being a teacher, Yılmaz et al. (2013) concluded that their participants explained the concept of a teacher by metaphors such as patents, family, gardener, guide, light and shepherd.Here, it is seen that the metaphors that were created were highly similar to those in our study, and a perception arose in similarity to the perception of a physical education teacher as a person who is seen familiar, runs to the help of others and guides students that was found in our study.Moreover, different studies on the concept of a teacher concluded that a teacher was perceived as a person who transmits information, shapes students, guides students and contributes to students' personal development (Koc, 2014;Saban, 2004).It is seen that the teacher perception as a person who guides and shapes the student was similar to the perception encountered in our study, while the perception of a teacher as a person who transmits information and contributes to students' personal development was different.Accordingly, it may be argued that the participants of our study did not see the physical education teacher as a person who transfers information and personally develops their students.Considering the studies where perceptions towards the physical education teacher were investigated, Yilmaz et al. (2017) found that students perceived the physical education teacher as a person who is guiding, compassionate, facilitates control and discipline and is fun.While the perception of a guiding and compassionate person that was emphasized in their study was similar to the perception of a person who is seen familiar, runs to the help of others and guides students in our study, the perception of a person in their study who facilitates control and is fun was different.Likewise, in the study by Karasahinoglu (2015) which investigated the physical education teacher perceptions of secondary school students revealed that, in the categories that included the highest numbers of metaphors, the participants perceived physical education teachers as people who are aggressive, sportive, strong, versatile and family-oriented people.Regarding their result, the perceptions outside the family-oriented and strong person were different to those observed in our study.The reason for obtaining different perceptions in these studies may be related to physical education teachers prioritizing their disciplined, aggressive and fun traits towards secondary school students in relation to the fact that the groups that were studied were different.The perception of physical education teacher as a person who is seen familiar, and guides students is theoretically suitable for today's education.But the reason underlying the perception of physical education teacher as a multidimensional person is that physical education teachers are engaged in work that should not be done outside the course.These results from the findings reveal a new situation that needs to be examined and resolved.What are the roles and responsibilities of physical education teachers in schools?
As a result, the findings show that metaphors are suitable tools for exploring the thought structures.It was understood that the prospective physical education teachers perceived the course of physical education as a course that entertains, pleases and relaxes students, as well as being a necessity for life.While the metaphors that were found in relation to entertainment and needs reflected the perceptions that need to be supported by teacher trainers in terms of reflecting the main characteristics of physical education classes, the metaphors that were found in relation to relaxation may reflect the perceptions that need to be reevaluated and transformed by teacher trainers in terms of their tendency towards corresponding to free time.It was found that physical education teachers were perceived as peoples who are seen familiar, provide support, guide students and work multidimensionally.Considering this finding, while the metaphors that were obtained in relation to the physical education teacher being a person who is a familiar supported and guide reflected a positive perception that needs to be supported by teacher trainers, the metaphors in relation to the physical education teacher being a person who works multidimensionally and does everything may reflect a negative perception that needs to be transformed by teacher trainers in terms of suggesting that physical education teachers are people who are busy with other things unrelated to their profession.
In this study, metaphorical perceptions were tried to be discovered by using semi-structured form.The study is limited to the data obtained from this data collection source.In this context, it is recommended to conduct various researches by using different data collection sources.Also, the study is limited to the metaphors created for the concepts of physical education course and physical education teacher.At this point, it is recommended to carry out studies on concepts such as teaching and learning, which are important for undergraduate education.In addition to these recommendations as a result of the findings that were obtained in the study, the following recommendations may be made: Faculty members who work in the field of teacher training are recommended to prepare a learning framework in the process of training physical education teachers that supports perceptions that are believed to be positive and transforms those that are believe to be negative, while using metaphors as pedagogic assistance that is supportive in this matter.In addition to this, it is recommended to conduct activity research for the transformation of the negative perceptions of prospective physical education teachers after these perceptions are discovered.Likewise, it is recommended to conduct such studies that were carried out with prospective teachers also with working physical education teachers who have different levels of experience in the service and discover their perceptions towards their courses and professions.

Table 1 .
Distribution of the prospective teachers based on class and gender

Table 2 .
Categories, numbers of created metaphors and class level distributions Physical Education Course as an Opportunity to Relax and Have Fun 28 metaphors were created by a total of 66 persons in the category of physical education course as an opportunity to relax and have fun.The metaphors that were created under this category and their frequencies are shown in Table3.

Table 3 .
Data on the metaphors reflecting the perceptions on the physical education course T. 1.2) "The physical education class is like social activities, because it eliminates the problems students have in other classes."(P.T.4.26) "The physical education class is like games, because you both learn and have fun."(P.T.3.5)"The physical education class is like music, because it relaxes you."(P.T. 2. 55) "The physical education class is like chocolate, because it gives you happiness."(P.T. 3.11) "The physical education class is like a free class, because the student feels very comfortable and free in this class."(P.T.1.29)

Table 4 .
Data on the metaphors reflecting the perceptions on the physical education course

Table 5 .
Categories, numbers and distributions of the created metaphors 3.2.1ThePhysicalEducationTeacher as a Person that is Found Familiar, Runs for Others' Help and Guides Students 27 metaphors were created by a total of 77 persons in the category of the physical education teachers as a person that runs for others' help and guides students.The metaphors that were created under this category and their frequency values are given in Table6.

Table 6 .
Data regarding the metaphors that reflected the perceptions towards the physical education teacher

Table 7 .
Data regarding the metaphors that reflected the perceptions towards the physical education teacher