This study was conducted to reveal the metaphorical perceptions of child development program students regarding the concepts of environment, environmental problem, and environmental education. In the study, case study design, one of the qualitative research methods, was used. The study group consists of a total of 51 first-year students taking the “child and environment” course in the child development program of a vocational school affiliated with a state university in Turkey. Data were collected with a metaphor form consisting of three parts: “Environment is like …………. because ………”; “Environmental problems are like …………. because ………”; “Environmental education is like …………. because ………” Data were analyzed with the content analysis technique. The identified metaphors of the students were collected under code and category headings. The concept of “environment” had been explained with the metaphors of human, flower, mirror, baby, house, life, lung, heaven, family, glasses, rainbow, sea, television, internet, breath, water, and art. The concept of “environmental problem” was coded with metaphors such as disease, cancer, mountain, health, traffic, poison ivy, virus, domestic problems, dust, popcorn, life, house, bread that started to mold and ballpoint pens. It has been determined that the concept of “environmental education” was explained with the metaphors of flower, lesson, child, medicine, school, hero, book, glasses wiper, revolution, key, person's name, personal development, seminar, therapy eraser, breath, mathematics, life, and character.
Environment, Environmental Problem, Environmental Education, Metaphor, Child Development Program