Students' Metaphorical Perceptions about the Concept of Play

The purpose of this research is to investigate the opinions of students enrolled in different classroom levels about the play concept through metaphors. In this research, phenomenology was used in accordance with the nature of qualitative research. The participants of the research were 600 students in total, 200 of whom are primary, middle, and high school senior year students. Ethical procedures were followed throughout the study. Participants were determined by cluster sampling method and participants forming the cluster sampling were determined by maximum diversity sampling technique. Data were collected by asking each participant to fill out the form with an open-ended article regarding the play concept such as “play is like …… / similar; because ……. ". Data obtained through the forms were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The metaphorical perceptions of students towards the concept of play were gathered in a total of 43 categories, including 17 in elementary school students, 19 in middle school senior students and 17 in high school senior students. The concept of play was attributed with 72 different meanings in primary school, 96 in secondary school and 78 in high school and was explained through 246 metaphors. The concept of play was most often used for primary school with entertainment, friends, books, and hide and seek metaphors; life, entertainment, friends, and having a good time for middle school students. For high school students, it was expressed with the metaphors of life, entertainment, children, football and food. When the metaphorical perceptions about the concept of play were examined, it was seen that 72 different meanings were attributed in primary school, 96 in middle school, and 78 in high school. So, the concept of play was explained through 246 metaphors in total. When these metaphors were examined, a total of 53 categories were obtained, including 17 from primary school students, 19 from middle school students and 17 from high school students. Depending on these categories, the concept of play was represented through agreed and different metaphors. Accordingly, elementary school students most often used the concept of play with the metaphors of ‘fun, friend, book and hide and seek’; middle school students expressed with the metaphors of ‘life, fun, friends, having good time’; and high school students with the metaphors of ‘life, entertainment, children, football and food’.