Metaphors of the prospective teachers regarding the concept of music

How teachers perceive concepts and facts is very important because teaching is a profession capable of shaping the cognitive, affective and behavioural behaviours of society through education. This research aims to determine the perceptions of prospective teachers studying at teacher education programmes of different fields regarding the concept of music. The main purpose here is to determine how music, which has an important place in human life with its individual, social, cultural, economic and educational functions, is perceived by prospective teachers. This research was conducted according to the descriptive survey model. The participants of the research consisted of three categories and a total of 186 people: prospective teachers attending departments whose curriculums do not include music lessons (PT, n = 57), prospective teachers attending departments whose curriculums include music lessons (preschool teaching, classroom teaching) (PTM, n = 66) and prospective music teachers (PMT, n = 63). The data were obtained through a form asking the participants to complete the statement ‘Music is like ... because ...’. The analysis of the produced metaphors was carried out in five steps: (1) coding and extracting, (2) collecting sample metaphors, (3) developing categories, (4) ensuring validity and reliability and (5) transferring data to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for quantitative data analysis. As a result of the research, based on 83 different metaphors produced by prospective teachers, these metaphors were divided into seven categories. When the distribution of perceptual categories by participant type was examined, it was observed that the perceptions of the participants changed according to whether they took music lessons and how often they took them. Keywords: Metaphor, music, perception of music, teacher education.