Prospective Early Childhood Teachers’ Mental Images about the Concepts of “Supervising Teacher”

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine prospective early childhood teachers’ mental images related to the concepts of their experienced “supervising teacher” and their ideal “supervising teacher” image through metaphors. Participants were 110 prospective teacher majoring in the Department of Early Childhood Education at Giresun University, Faculty of Education during the 2014-2015 academic year.   They were asked to produce totally two metaphors about their experienced and their ideal “supervising teacher” image. The research data were collected by asking the participants to complete the statement “For me the supervising teacher was like…because…” and “For me the supervising teacher is like…be­cause…”. As a result of the study, it was found that 62 valid metaphors and 10 categories reflected their experienced supervising teacher. In the study, 36 valid metaphors and 9 categories reflected their ideal supervising teacher. Based on their common characteristics, the categories of their experienced supervising teacher are unproductive, authority, productive, a place of love, scary, exhausted, guide, a source of knowledge, inconsistent and researcher. The categories of their ideal supervising teacher are productive, guide, a place of love, a source of knowledge, a source of personal development, to be full of energy, model, authority and funny. The metaphors produced by prospective teacher included positive and negative perceptions. At the end of the study, it appears that while participants produced negative and teacher-centered metaphors to reflect their supervising teachers experiences, they developed positive and student-centered metaphors to reflect their ideal supervising teachers. According to these results,   it can be said that the supervising teachers  must be chosen more attentively by institusion being trained teacher.