Years ago a primary teacher told me about a great series of lessons she had just had. The class had visited rock pools on the seashore, and when she asked them about their observations they talked about: it was like a factory, it was like a church, it was like a garden, it was like our kitchen at breakfast time, etc. Each student's analogy could be elaborated, and these analogies provided her with strongly engaged students and a great platform from which to develop their learning about biological diversity and interdependence. In everyday life we learn so many things by comparing and contrasting. The use of analogies and metaphors is important in science itself and their use in teaching science seems a natural extension, but textbooks with their own sparse logic, do not help teachers or students. David Ausubel in the 1960s had advocated the use of 'advance organisers' to introduce the teaching of conceptual material in the sciences, and some of these had an analogical character. However, research on the value of this idea was cumbersome and indecisive, and it ceased after just a few studies. In the 1980s research into children's conceptions of scientific phenomena and concepts really burgeoned, and it was soon followed by an exploration of a new set of pedagogical strategies that recognised a student in a science class is much more than a tabula rasa.

Breadth of research applications of metaphor and analogy in science education Inclusion of practical applications of metaphor and analogy in science education International contributors, including both outstanding scholars in the field and teachers Brings together research in the field of metaphor and analogy in science education for the first time Provides content accessible to and of value to teachers, researchers and student teachers

Klappentext

This book brings together powerful ideas and new developments from internationally recognised scholars and classroom practitioners to provide theoretical and practical knowledge to inform progress in science education. This is achieved through a series of related chapters reporting research on analogy and metaphor in science education. Throughout the book, contributors not only highlight successful applications of analogies and metaphors, but also foreshadow exciting developments for research and practice. Themes include metaphor and analogy: best practice, as reasoning; for learning; applications in teacher development; in science education research; philosophical and theoretical foundations. Accordingly, the book is likely to appeal to a wide audience of science educators classroom practitioners, student teachers, teacher educators and researchers.

Inhalt
Metaphor and Analogy.- Teaching and Learning with Analogies.- Complementary Epistemologies of Science Teaching.- Post-Festum and Heuristic Analogies.- The Affective Dimension of Analogy.- The Role of Models, Mental Models and Analogies in Chemistry Teaching.- Metaphors for Genes.- Role Play as Analogical Modelling in Science.- Metaphor, Students' Conceptions of Learning and Teaching, and Metacognition.- The Role of Analog Models in the Understanging of the Nature of Models in Chemistry.- The Role of Metaphor in a New Science Teacher's Learning from Experience.- Metaphors and Analogies in Transition.- Why Do Science Teachers Teach the Way They Do and How Can They Improve Practice?.- Can Analogy Help in Science Education Research?.- Metaphors We Write by.- Metaphorically Thinking.