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Learning and Metaphor: Bridging the Gap Between the Familiar and the Unfamiliar
Abstract
In this chapter metaphors and related figures of speech are shown to be necessary and integral parts of sense making and learning. It is shown how this kind of speech has been studied in research in relation to children’s understanding and learning. It is argued that different methodological approaches have led to different notions of children’s abilities. Two recent studies on children and metaphorical speech in science-learning activities in preschool are introduced. One study investigated the nature and use of such speech and another study looked at a particular form of metaphorical speech, anthropomorphism. It is argued that metaphor is one way of establishing relations between different things without collapsing them into one and the same.
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This article examines the role elementary school children’s spontaneous metaphors play in learning science. The data consists
of tape recordings of about 25h from five different schools. The material is analysed using a practical epistemology analysis
and by using Dewey’s ideas on the continuity and transformation of experience. The results show the rich and varied meanings
that children put into their spontaneous metaphors. Their metaphors deal with facts as well as norms and aesthetics in relation
to the science content taught and they influence learning both through what is made salient, as well as through their relations
to the children’s possibilities of proceeding with their undertakings. Often one and the same metaphor encompassed all these
cognitive, aesthetic and normative aspects at the same time. It is discussed how this rich meaning can be cultured in a productive
way, and how the children’s spontaneous metaphors, with all their relations, can be used to enhance conceptual learning and
also learning about the nature of metaphor use in science. Through their connection with various experiences of the children,
it is also shown how children’s spontaneous metaphors have the potential to enliven and humanise the subject.
In describing memory phenomena in natural language, a spatial metaphor is typically employed. Memories are considered to be
objects that are stored in a mind space, and the process of retrieval is conceived as a search for these objects. It is argued
that this metaphor has been carried over into many of the popular theories of memory in cognitive psychology and that seemingly
diverse theories employ the same underlying set of assumptions. A survey of the analogies that have been used to explain memory
is presented and alternatives to the dominant spatial storage and search assumptions are discussed. The spatial metaphor is
evaluated, and the role of analogical explanation in psychology is briefly considered. One result of the increasing number
of analogical models is the proliferation of hypothetical mental constructs that are only loosely connected to behavioral
measures. nt|mis|A number of members of Ebbinghaus Empire at the University of Toronto contributed analogies that are listed
in Table 1 and commented on the views expressed here.
Many scholars of language have accepted a view of grammar as a clearly delineated and internally coherent structure which is best understood as a self-contained system. The contributors to this volume propose a very different way of approaching and understanding grammar, taking it as part of a broader range of systems which underlie the organisation of social life and emphasising its role in the use of language in everyday interaction and cognition. Taking as their starting-point the position that the very integrity of grammar is bound up with its place in the larger schemes of the organisation of human conduct, particularly with social interaction, their essays explore a rich variety of linkages between interaction and grammar.
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"--metaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them.
In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
In order to understand how pupils think with respect to evolution and the development of the species, a class of Swedish gymnasium pupils (upper secondary level) taking a course in genetics and evolution was observed. The pupils wrote essays before and after receiving instruction in these topics, and some of them were also asked to discuss the question of how characteristics are inherited. The pupils had fairly extensive factual knowledge, but had difficulty in relating these facts to one another in coherent descriptions and explanations. It is suggested that the difficulties the pupils experienced can be attributed to their diffuse understanding of what is meant by explanation, of different kinds of explanation and of the range of factors that can be covered by an explanation. An additional factor here is that pupils are often engaged in questions that may be irrelevant to the explanations given in the instruction and which may require other types of answers than those given in the instruction. The point is made that there is a meta level of alternative beliefs and that this level circumscribes what questions can be put in the realm of a subject matter field.
The article reports an empirical study of how authors in popular science magazines attempt to render scientific knowledge intelligible to wide audiences. In bridging the two domains of “popular” and “scientific” knowledge, respectively, metaphor becomes central. We ask the empirical question of what metaphors are used when communicating about modern genetics (DNA and related terms), and what images of human beings are produced. The results show that this field is rich in metaphors and such resources play an important role when recontextualising genetics from one domain to the other. Anthropomorphic metaphors are frequent and genes and DNA are made into intentional agents that decide, choose, and remember. One level of description (molecular) is conflated with a totally different one (intentionality). Other metaphors come from the field of communication (genes as text, letter, library), architecture, and several other fields. The results testify to the role of specific cultural categories when narrating abstract phenomena. It is also argued that popularisation seems to imply making the representation model invisible, and in this sense the model is presented as a claim about ontology.
In the literature on children’s understanding of astronomical concepts, such as the shape of the earth and gravitation, the difficulties that children have in conceptualizing these phenomena have been documented in many studies. The purpose of this research is to critically scrutinize these findings by taking a situated and discursive perspective on reasoning (and cognitive development). Instead of viewing understanding as the overt expression of underlying mental models, children’s responses in interview studies should be regarded as situated and as dependent on the tools available as resources for reasoning. By modifying the interview situation through the introduction of a globe as a tool for thinking, the outcomes are radically different from those reported earlier. None of the problems that have been reported, where children, for instance, claim that people can fall off the earth, can be detected. Even among the youngest participants gravitation is often invoked as an explanatory concept. It is argued that the globe in this case serves as an efficient prosthetic device for thinking, and this illustrates the tool-dependent nature of human reasoning.
In this study a particular kind of figurative language, so‐called anthropomorphic speech, is analysed in the context of science activities in a preschool setting. Anthropomorphism means speaking about something non‐human in human terms. Can any systematic pattern be seen with regard to when such speech is used? Do children and/or teachers introduce this kind of talking and how is it responded to by the interlocutor(s)? Of 128 instances of anthropomorphism found, 24 were made by the children and 104 by the teachers. Children sometimes respond in line with the introduction of such speech but they also at times reject this way of speaking. Anthropomorphic speech is discussed as a strategy for the teachers in handling the dilemma of how to connect with children’s experiences and terms, on the one hand, and developing children’s understanding, on the other hand.
Pretests and posttests on the topic of evolution by natural selection were administered to students in a college nonmajors' biology course. Analysis of test responses revealed that most students understood evolution as a process in which species respond to environmental conditions by changing gradually over time. Student thinking differed from accepted biological theory in that (a) changes in traits were attributed to a need-driven adaptive process rather than random genetic mutation and sexual recombination, (b) no role was assigned to variation on traits within a population or differences in reproductive success, and (c) traits were seen as gradually changing in all members of a population. Although students had taken an average of 1.9 years of previous biology courses, performance on the pretest was uniformly low. There was no relationship between the amount of previous biology taken and either pretest or posttest performance. Belief in the truthfulness of evolutionary theory was also unrelated to either pretest or posttest performance. Course instruction using specially designed materials was moderately successful in improving students' understanding of the evolutionary process.
This study explored how some college students understand the nature of the theory of evolution and how they evaluate its scientific status. We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 college biology seniors in which we asked them to explain why they think evolution assumes the status of a scientific theory, how it compares to other scientific theories, and what criteria do they use to determine if an explanation is scientific or not. Students' responses encompassed five themes that include evidence, certainty, experimentation, method of theory generation, and prediction. Those themes focused on the theory's empirical dimension which seemed to be derived from a generic and simplistic model of physical science theories that valued direct evidence. Demanding that evolutionary theory conform to this model reveals a misunderstanding of its nature. This misunderstanding was expressed in relation to aspects of methodology, explanation, and prediction. The findings underscore the need for using explicit discipline- and context-specific approaches to teaching and learning about scientific theories. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed, 89:378–391, 2005
This article reports an empirical study of an important but under-studied feature of learning practices with young children:
the use of metaphors and other kinds of figurative language. The data consist of video-recordings of children (3–5years old)
and their teacher engaged in thematic work about soil. The analysis revealed that the teacher and the children use a rich
repertoire of communicative tools of a figurative kind to carry out a number of important functions, such as describing, explaining,
and visualising phenomena. Some important questions to pursue in future studies of young children’s learning are proposed.
KeywordsLanguage-Speech-Metaphor-Emergent science
Studies of scientific metaphors have largely focused on the existence, application, and function of metaphors in specialist scientific discourse, in some way overlooking the use of scientific metaphors in non-specialist discourses, in particular that of popularization. Richard Boyd (Boyd, Richard, 1993. Metaphor and theory change: what is “metaphor” a metaphor for? In: Ortony, Andrew (Ed.), Metaphor and Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 481–533) is an exception, however. He suggests the existence of two fundamentally separated categories of scientific metaphors: theory-constructive and pedagogical/exegetical metaphors. Whereas the theory-constructive metaphors represent original scientific thought and terminology, pedagogical metaphors merely describe or explain existing knowledge. The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between these two categories of metaphors from a pragmatic and empirical perspective. The analysis is based on a case study of the application of metaphors describing the genetic code and protein synthesis in three specialist and three non-specialist scientific articles. The study reveals that, depending on context and genre, exactly the same metaphors are used for theory-constructive and for pedagogical purposes. Consequently, metaphors should not be classified according to the individual expressions, but in relation to the developmental history of the specific metaphor, as well as such parameters or criteria as communicative purpose and genre.
‘Metaphor in Educational Discourse is a superb piece of applied linguistics research that integrates Vygotsky’s theory of concepts with current work on metaphor into a coherent framework for investigating how teachers and learners negotiate figurative language in order to promote development in the classroom setting. In what is likely to become the standard for future studies in this area, Lynne Cameron meticulously demonstrates the central role of linguistic metaphors in classroom learning - designed to lead learners to a deeper understanding of complex mathematical and scientific concepts.’ James P. Lantolf, Professor of Applied Linguistics, The Pennsylvania State University. This book reports research into metaphor in use with school students. The setting for the research is a UK school and the participants are around ten years old, with their first language well established but still developing concepts and understandings. Close examination of a corpus of classroom spoken discourse reveals how metaphor is employed by their teachers, not just in explaining ideas, but, in managing and mediating the activity of the classroom and the learning of the students. Particular issues discussed include: the problems of identifying metaphors in spoken discourse, the conventionalism of metaphors in the discourse of socio-cultural groups, and how a socio-cultural approach can account for systematicity in metaphor use.
The now-classic Metaphors We Live By changed our understanding of metaphor and its role in language and the mind. Metaphor, the authors explain, is a fundamental mechanism of mind, one that allows us to use what we know about our physical and social experience to provide understanding of countless other subjects. Because such metaphors structure our most basic understandings of our experience, they are "metaphors we live by"âmetaphors that can shape our perceptions and actions without our ever noticing them. In this updated edition of Lakoff and Johnson's influential book, the authors supply an afterword surveying how their theory of metaphor has developed within the cognitive sciences to become central to the contemporary understanding of how we think and how we express our thoughts in language.
There is now a significant body of knowledge about the use and value of metaphor and analogy in science education. In this book, leading academics with teachers present their most recent thinking in this field. Research in analogy and metaphor is both deeply theorised and highly practical. This book brings together both related aspects of research informing academics, teachers and prospective teachers. The book deals with:
1. metaphor and analogy, a theoretical basis
2. metaphor and analogy in teaching and learning
3. metaphor and analogy in teacher development/change
4. metaphor and analogy in science education research
Metaphors of memory: A history of ideas about the mind
- D Draaisma
Om elevers förståelse av naturvetenskapliga förklaringar och biologiska sammanhang [Students’ understanding of scientific explanations in relation to biological contexts] (Studies in education and psychology, 31)
- S Pedersen
Metaforik för minne och lärande. I R. Säljö (Red.), Lärande och minnande som social praktik (s. 42-63)
- N Pramling
- R Säljö
Minding metaphors: Using figurative language in learning to represent (Göteborg studies in educational sciences, 238)
- N Pramling
Utvecklingspsykologi: Barn-och ungdomsåren [Developmental psychology: Childhood and youth] (I. Lindelöf, Trans
- S Von Tetzchner
Utvecklingspsykologi: Barn- och ungdomsåren [Developmental psychology: Childhood and youth
- S Von Tetzchner