Employing metaphor analysis, the present studyexplores the nature of unconscious beliefs of PhD students. This research aimsat analyzing the metaphors produced by Iranian PhD students about learning and teaching in both current and ideal situations. Using the Iranian context of education, this study intended to: first, collecting the metaphors the students created by using the prompts “A university student is/should be like a...” and “A university professor is/should be like a... ”. Second, identifying and analyzing the metaphors. The results revealed thatPhD university students concur with forming the foundation of learning and teaching based on situativelearning concepts. Finally, the results were discussed in the context of language learning and teaching.

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