Examination of Secondary School Students' Metaphorical Perceptions towards the Mathematics Textbook

The purpose of this research is to examine secondary school students' metaphorical perceptions towards the mathematics textbook. In the study in which the phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research designs, was adopted, a total of 379 students from the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade levels studying in a secondary school in the city centre of Siirt in the 2024–2025 academic year constituted the study group of the research. The students were asked to complete the sentence "The mathematics textbook is like … because …" and the obtained data were analysed using the content analysis method. A total of 186 different metaphors were produced by the students and these metaphors were classified under eight main themes: difficulty, guidance, life, fun, infinity, time, experience and source of knowledge. The most frequently used metaphors include “maze,” “map,” “sea,” and “brain.” These expressions show that students perceive the mathematics textbook not only as a tool for information, but also as a guiding, challenging, life-related, and experiential element. Research findings reveal that taking students’ metaphorical thinking into account in the design of learning materials can contribute to the creation of more effective learning environments in both cognitive and affective terms.