Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vii

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2. Metaphor and Analogy

   • Peter J. Aubusson, Allan G. Harrison, Stephen M. Ritchie

   Pages 1-9

3. Teaching and Learning with Analogies

   • Allan G. Harrison, David F. Treagust

   Pages 11-24

4. Complementary Epistemologies of Science Teaching

   • John William Willison, Peter Charles Taylor

   Pages 25-36

5. Post-Festum and Heuristic Analogies

   • Jens Wilbers, Reinders Duit

   Pages 37-49

6. The Affective Dimension of Analogy

   • Allan G. Harrison

   Pages 51-63

7. The Role of Models, Mental Models and Analogies in Chemistry Teaching

   • Richard K. Coll

   Pages 65-77

8. Metaphors for Genes

   • Grady J. Venville, Susan J. Gribble, Jennifer Donovan

   Pages 79-91

9. Role Play as Analogical Modelling in Science

   • Peter J. Aubusson, Stephen Fogwill

   Pages 93-104

10. Metaphor, Students’ Conceptions of Learning and Teaching, and Metacognition

    • Gregory P. Thomas

    Pages 105-117

11. The Role of Analog Models in the Understanging of the Nature of Models in Chemistry

    • Rosária Justi, John Gilbert

    Pages 119-130

12. The Role of Metaphor in a New Science Teacher’s Learning from Experience

    • Tom Russell, Michael Hrycenko

    Pages 131-142

13. Metaphors and Analogies in Transition

    • Stephen M. Ritchie, Alberto Bellocchi, Heidi Poltl, Marianne Wearmouth

    Pages 143-153

14. Why Do Science Teachers Teach the Way They Do and How Can They Improve Practice?

    • Kenneth Tobin

    Pages 155-164

15. Can Analogy Help in Science Education Research?

    • Peter Aubusson

    Pages 165-175

16. Metaphors We Write by

    • Stephen M. Ritchie

    Pages 177-187

17. Metaphorically Thinking

    • Stephen M. Ritchie, Peter J. Aubusson, Allan G. Harrison

    Pages 189-195

18. Back Matter

    Pages 197-210

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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.

• chemistry
• education
• nature
• science
• science education

• University of Technology Sydney, Australia

  Peter J. Aubusson

• Central Queensland University, Australia

  Allan G. Harrison

• Queensland University of Technology, Australia

  Stephen M. Ritchie

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