Metaphors are one of the most important tools in determining pre-service teachers' perceptions about teaching geometry. Metaphor is the transformation of unknown facts into understandable facts by comparing abstract and complex facts with concrete and current facts. When the literature is examined, it is seen that there is an increase in the studies on metaphors. The fact that metaphors have a significant effect on making sense of the world and facilitate the understanding of abstract mathematical concepts highlights metaphors as mental models. Qualitative research method has been used in the study carried out for determination of perception of preschool teacher candidates regarding teaching of geometry with the help of metaphors. Phenomenological design has been used in the research. The phenomenology design is an approach that focuses on phenomena that are aware of but for which a detailed and in-depth understanding cannot be developed. Study group of the research consists of 96 teacher candidates in 3rd and 4th grade of Giresun University Faculty of Education Basic Education Faculty Preschool Education Department in the academic year 2021-2022, who created meaningful metaphors and took the "Mathematics Education in Early Childhood Period" course previously. In order to collect their data, a two-part interview form consisting of questions consisting of 6 sentences and two parts, used by Koç Sarıer (2020) in their own study to determine the metaphors regarding the concept of distance education and questions about the personal information of the students, was used. The data were analyzed by content analysis method, and the metaphors developed by the teacher candidates were coded and listed in alphabetical order. Metaphors of the candidates were analyzed and interpreted in three stages. In order to ensure reliability in the research, after the sorting process, the metaphors were first matched with the conceptual categories by the researcher and a frequency table was created. Then, two researchers who are field experts were asked to match the same metaphors with their conceptual categories without leaving any metaphors out. As a result of the research, it is seen that preschool teacher candidates have developed a negative perception regarding teaching geometry.

Preschool, teacher candidates, teaching geometry, metaphor