An Investigation of the Concept of Nature among High School and University Students through Metaphor Analysis

Abstract

This study examines and analyses the metaphors that high school and university students formulated to describe the concept of nature. 198 (70,2%) high school students and 84 (29,8%) university students (n = 282) participated in the study. Specifically, the following questions guided this study: (1) what metaphors do high school and university students use to describe the concept of nature? (2) How do these themes differ across participants' education level and gender?. The data were collected with a research packet consisted of a questionnaire. In the analysis of data, frequency, percentage, arithmetic mean, standard deviation and t-test were used. The results obtained in this study are as follows: While metaphors associated with nature were received by students at high level, nature were seen by high school and university students as forest, green area, living, live, home, rainbow, art, freedom, scuba, heaven and serenity. Also among the views of participants, significant difference with respect to educational level and gender was found.