Special Education Teacher Candidates' Metaphoric Perceptions of Technology-Assisted Instruction

Abstract

This study aims to determine the metaphors created by teacher candidates for technology-assisted instruction in special education. This is a descriptive study, which was conducted in survey model. The study group consisted of 138 volunteer teacher candidates studying at the second, third and fourth grades of the Special Education Department. Teacher candidates' metaphors about the use of technology in special education were created online collected with a questionnaire. In order to reveal the metaphors of teacher candidates for technology-assisted teaching in special education, sentences such as “To me, technology-assisted teaching in special education are like ......; because, …….”. The content analysis technique in the research was used for data analysis. Teacher candidates of the Department of Special Education have produced 56 metaphors about the use of technology in special education. These metaphors are grouped according to their common features and grounds for use. The grouping study, metaphors were collected under six different categories. The metaphors created by the teacher candidates were visualized using figures and tables, categorized, and explained using direct quotes from the participants' reasoned explanations. It is observed that the metaphors of water, key and compass were used frequently about the technology-assisted teaching in special education. Among these metaphors, water has been repeated 15 times and became the most used metaphor by teacher candidates, while key and compass have been repeated seven times. It is concluded that teacher candidate' perceptions of technology-assisted teaching in special education are generally positive.

Keywords

• : Special education
• teacher candidate
• metaphor
• metaphorical perception
• technology-assisted instruction
• : Special education, teacher candidate, metaphor, metaphorical perception, technology-assisted instruction