Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
RESEARCH IN SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION, cilt.00, sa.00, ss.1-27, 2025 (SSCI)
Background: Despite the valuable learning opportunities experimentation
offers, it poses significant challenges for teachers and
learners. The effectiveness of instructional scaffolding in students’
experiments is intricately linked to science teachers’ conceptual
foundations and practical abilities to impart science concepts and
epistemic practices.
Purpose: Considering their metaphorical representations, this
research unveiled science teachers’ imaginations regarding core
epistemic practical work, specifically scientific experiments.
Methods: The present study engaged 340 Turkish science teachers.
The participants used a metaphor imagination task to express their
perceptions of scientific experiments.
Results: The study identified metaphorical conceptualizations
organized around structural themes (action, tool, and place). This
indicates that the participants perceived the generation of scientific
knowledge through experiments as a dynamic process akin to
science-as-activity. Furthermore, three predominant conceptual
orientations were highlighted: hypothesis testing, knowledge production,
and discovery. Teachers viewed scientific experiments as
avenues for knowledge generation through discovery, with hypothesis
testing playing a significant role.
Conclusion: The findings suggest that the metaphors conveyed
a science-as-logic and science-as-theory perspective rather than
a science-as-practice understanding. The study advocates for reconsidering
and redesigning teacher training programs to instill the
understanding that scientific experiments extend beyond isolated
activities. These developmental programs should stress that experimenting
is an epistemic activity involving collaborative knowledge
generation within social, cultural, contextual, and institutional
contexts.