THE CONCEPT OF ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF UNDERGRADUATE GEOGRAPHY STUDENTS: A PHENOMENOGRAPHIC STUDY

The main subject of this study is to determine the geography and geography education students’ perceptions of "atmospheric pressure" by the method of phenomenographic analysis. Total of 150 undergraduate geography students in Marmara University Faculty of Education and Faculty of Arts and Science were included in the study in the academic year 2011-2012. Of 150 students, 103 were male (68.67%) and 47 were female (31.33%). Of these students, 57 were studying in the department of geography (38%) and 93 (62%) were geography education.In the study, a semi-structured questionnaire was used for data collection. In order to analyze the data, followings stages were conducted respectively: (1) coding and classification, (2) the creation of leading categories, (3) the creation of description categories and (4) creation of description map. As a result of the analysis of the data obtained, it was revealed that the students described atmospheric pressure in eight different categories and six different ways. Among the categories, the metaphor of "atmospheric pressure is the air force that is exerted on the earth" hasthe highest number of metaphors with total of 42 records (28%).