Evaluation of Perceptions of Secondary School Students About the Concept of “Music” by Metaphors

Abstract

Metaphor is associated with expressions such as symbolic expression, connotation and simile. Metaphor is the use of similes to liken, compare and explain something with another. The concepts have been tried to be analyzed through metaphors in many studies. Although studies on the analysis of metaphors in different branches and branches of studies are frequently encountered, studies on analysis through metaphors in music and music education are less common than other areas of education. This study aims to analyze the opinions of secondary school students about music concept by means of metaphors, and to determine the students’ perceptions regarding music and music lesson through metaphors and to give a different and effective direction to music education. The study group consisted of 1003 students attending at the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grades at nine secondary schools selected from Erzurum, Turkey in 2017-2018 academic year by Random Sampling method. The study was carried out by the Descriptive Research Model. In this study, Phenomenology, one of the qualitative research methods, was used and the data were processed by the Content Analysis method. The data obtained were digitized and analyzed by coding in SPSS packet program. As a result of this research, it was determined that secondary school students had a high interest and affection towards music and music lesson and their music preferences were pop music. In addition, 68 kinds of metaphors and 13 kinds of conceptual categories related to music were obtained from 1003 participants. It was found that the most frequently repeated metaphors were “Friend” and “Love”, and generally the students' perceptions were positive towards the concept of music and music lesson, and the metaphors produced differed according to gender, class and music preference variables.