Metaphor and Analogy in Science Education

Abstract

1. FROM PARIAH TO PANACEA? To draw attention to a philosophers metaphors is to belittle him like praising a logician for his beautiful handwriting. Addiction to metaphor is held to be illicit, on the principle that whereof one can speak only metaphorically, thereof one ought not to speak at all. do not accept the commandment, Thou shalt not commit metaphor or assume that metaphor is incompatible with serious thought. (Black, 1962, p.25) How far we have come! Since the mid-twentieth century, philosophers have accepted that metaphor and analogy permeate all discourse, are fundamental to human thought and provide a basis for mental leaps (see Black, 1962; Goswami, 1992; Johnson, 1981; Lakoff & Johnson 1980; Schön, 1983). Similarly, the potential contribution of metaphor and analogy to cognitive learning (e.g., in schools) has attracted the attention of the science education research community (Gentner & Stevens, 1983). The first important revelation is that metaphor is not merely a linguistic phenomenon. It also is a fundamental principle of thought and action (see Johnson, 1981). The second revelation is that analogies are more specific than metaphors and, despite their wide use in everyday communication and reasoning, their use in teaching is often problematic because the applicability of specific analogies not negotiated with students. Consequently, researchers have and are interested in the form and function of analogy and metaphor in learning and teaching science. These philosophical and educational origins of metaphor and analogy have spawned a significant literature and cognitive theories. These have the potential to enhance science teaching and learning; promote higher-level thinking; and yield new tools for interpreting science education research. To achieve these aims, the book brings together powerful ideas and new developments from international scholars of metaphor and analogy in science education. It also offers theoretical and practical perspectives on metaphor and analogy that should promote concept learning, metacognition and communication. The books first theme is the ubiquity of metaphor and how metaphors can help people explore their epistemological and ontological commitments. Metaphoric thinking helps teachers (re)conceptualise their role and practice and it can promote professional reflection, action research and educational renewal. These benefits are intrinsically tied to the metaphors we live by because metaphor enables us to conceptualise our experiences and to pick out what is important in the experience and categorise the experience dimension by dimension (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980, p.83, 145). Metaphors have entailments that suggest a range of new ideas, applications and possibilities; this is what makes metaphor a creative tool for looking inwards and for critiquing accepted ideas. The second theme is analogical thinking as it applies to concept description and explanation and the book explores the theory and use of analogies in classrooms and discusses a range of popular instructional analogies. Analogy is attractive because it