Metaphors Of Learning Research Articles

Personal Networks Supporting Workplace Learning

This paper is a case study researching personal social networks and their meaning to individual-level learning processes in the workplace. The study was based on the knowledge-creation metaphor of learning. Employees' personal networks are seen as an important component of their learning potential and competence. Methodologically, the paper presents a relatively new technique of Social Network Analysis (SNA), namely, the qualitative egocentric network interview, and a new way of presenting research findings in visual form. The context of the study is the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) and it was conducted in three companies of one brigade-level unit of the Finnish Army. An egocentric network interview was conducted with ten Non-Commissioned Officers (NCO). The interview data was analysed with qualitative content analysis, and the networks were visualised with the Cytoscape software. The egocentric network analysis showed that the people in the same company created a major support structure for the NCOs’ workplace learning. However, nearly all NCOs had important network structures that were formed around their individual expertise and tasks. The networks varied considerably in size and composition, but had certain connecting features. The networks had three main components; one, the personnel of the NCO’s own unit provided important social support. Two, every NCO had networks related to their own specific task, and three, some NCOs had networks formed through various stages of their life that were still active and useful in their current job. The different ways in which the networks enable and support workplace learning are discussed. In addition, some methodological issues of social network analysis are addressed.

Beyond Textbook Cases- Exploring the Pedagogical Utility of Medical Analogy and Metaphor in Learning and Teaching Strategic Management

Students of strategic management are often inundated with a plethora of analytical tools from which they must chose a select few to help them to effectively analyse the forces impacting the sustainable competitiveness of an organisation. Choosing the right tool(s) can be daunting, yet crucial for understanding organizational challenges and crafting relevant and effective strategic solutions. This desk research study explores the utility of analogies and metaphors as pedagogical tools to prepare students to become adept in strategic analysis. Aristotle likened metaphors to puzzles, suggesting that, like puzzles, metaphors engage us in figuring out how one thing resembles another. It is during this active participation and interpreting that makes analogies and metaphors effective in making complex strategy concepts more relatable to students. Through the process of analogical encoding, this conceptual study argues that the medical analogy holds promise for effective scaffolding of students’ learning, demystifying abstracts and making them more relatable in addition to structuring thinking across domains as well as promoting critical thinking, decision-making, creativity, problem-solving, collaboration and communication skills - key 21st century skills sought by industry. By leveraging familiar medical analogies, teachers or educators can promote learner-centred authentic learning, simultaneously enhancing the students’ learning experience.

Production rather than observation: comparison between the roles of embodiment and conceptual metaphor in L2 lexical tone learning

BackgroundIt remains unclear how embodiment and conceptual metaphor play a role in second language (L2) lexical tone learning. AimsThe present study aimed to examine the roles of pitch gesture production (PP), pitch feature observation (PO), and word-picture association (WA) approach in L2 lexical tone learning. SampleParticipants were 90 undergraduate students with Mandarin as their native language. MethodsParticipants learned Thai lexical tones via the three approaches and completed tone discrimination, tone identification, and word-picture matching tasks. ResultsThe PP performed better than the PO and WA in discriminating between and identifying specific tones. The PP was more accurate than the WA in word-picture matching. ConclusionsThe pitch gesture production's embodiment was superior to the pitch feature observation's conceptual metaphor in learning L2 lexical tones. However, its role was affected by lexical tones' pitch features, test tasks, and learners' tonal experience.

ОСОБЕННОСТИ МЕТАФОРИЧЕСКОЙ РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦИИ МИРА В КОНТЕКСТЕ БИЛИНГВАЛЬНОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ

The study focuses on the role of metaphor in aesthetic perception and cognitive development of schoolchildren. Metaphor plays a crucial role in the formation of aesthetic perception and understanding of the world in schoolchildren, contributing to their development and socialization. The authors emphasize the importance of metaphors in learning, socialization, and value formation in children. They point out the insufficient research of metaphors, especially in the works of Kazakh authors in Russian. The particular interest is the work of bilinguals, such as Bakhyt Kairbekov, whose lyrics combine Turkic customs with modern consciousness. The paper analyzes metaphorical concepts in his lyrical texts from the collections "Towards the Sun" (“Navstrechu solncu”) (2014) and "The Way of Water" (“Put’ vody”) (2018), revealing their potential as didactic material in school. The study of the artistic picture of the world of a bilingual poet allows us to identify key elements of Kazakh culture and traditions. As a result of the analysis, it was found that the poet uses anthropomorphic metaphors, putting national and general cultural concepts into them. The study of metaphors and images in Kairbekov's texts can serve as a foundation for developing students' skills in analyzing literature. The study of his work helps to expand the cultural and metaphorical consciousness of schoolchildren, helping them to immerse themselves in the world of Kazakh culture and developing their creative thinking.

“THINGS AIN’T WHAT THEY USED TO BE”: BUSINESS SUBFIELDS BENEFITTING FROM JAZZ TO FOSTER CREATIVITY

Tenors like “bring in the arts and get the creativity for free” have attracted business practitioners and researchers, and this “intersection” of business and arts has developed into a study field. Metaphorical learning from arts involves musical, also theatrical, and terpsichorean improvisation. Not surprisingly, several subfields in business – entrepreneurship, project, process, and service management – as well as other business and non-business fields – have been “jazzed”. Another strengthening trend is linking different (sub)fields and fostering mutual learning. The paper seeks for novel possibilities to learn from jazz and to support further mutual learning and linking of disserted business, also non-business fields. Nowadays traditional business models and services are moving towards problem-solving and adaptation to change, implementing creativity and improvisation. Taking a fresh stock of relevant academic literature and discussion revealed the increasing importance of organizational improvisation. Jazz (music and arts) appeared to be a fruitful metaphor and source of learning. As differences appeared across the examined fields, possibilities for learning from jazz, as well as for mutual learning are not yet depleted. This paper provides insights to further learning from the jazz approach, as well as mutual learning and enrichment between the examined subfields.

Learning metaphors and classroom enactments: Understanding webs of association and their entailments for school mathematics

Oriented by the observation that cross-cultural comparisons of mathematics teaching have had little impact on the evolution of classroom practice, we develop the thesis that approaches to school mathematics are rooted in metaphors and sustained by associations that are language specific. We examined distinct webs of meaning for the words “learn” and “teach” in three languages: English, Czech, and Japanese. By applying a tool designed for analyzing bodily classroom (inter)activity, we aim to demonstrate that the meanings of these words are evident in practices that are readily observed in video recordings of mathematics lessons conducted in these languages. We suggest that efforts toward “transcreation” rather than “translation” are better fitted to hopes of interpreting and informing classroom practices across languages.

The Psychologically Informed Practice Consultation Roadmap: A Clinical Implementation Strategy.

Psychologically informed practice (PiP) includes a special focus on psychosocial obstacles to recovery, but research trials have revealed significant difficulties in implementing PiP outside of research environments. Qualitative studies have identified problems of both competence and confidence in tackling the psychosocial aspects of care, with a tendency to prefer dealing with the more mechanical aspects of care. In PiP, the distinction between assessment and management is not clear-cut. Analysis of the problem is part of the intervention, and guided self-management begins with the initial detective work by the patient, who is encouraged to develop successful and relevant behavior change. This requires a different style and focus of communication that some clinicians find difficult to enact. In this Perspective, the PiP Consultation Roadmap is offered as a guide for clinical implementation to establish a therapeutic relationship, develop patient-centered communication, and guide effective pain self-management. These strategies are illustrated through the metaphor of the patient learning to drive, with the therapist as a driving instructor and the patient as a student driver. For convenience, the Roadmap is depicted in 7 stages. Each stage represents aspects of the clinical consultation in a recommended order, although the Roadmap should be viewed as a general guide with a degree of flexibility to accommodate individual differences and optimize PiP interventions. It is anticipated that the experienced PiP clinician will find it progressively easier to implement the Roadmap as the building blocks and style of consultation become more familiar.

Metaphor in Foreign Language Learning and Teaching and its Implications

Metaphor, as a conceptual and cognitive tool, plays an important role in language learning and teaching. Based on the related research on metaphor, this paper discusses the performance of metaphor in foreign language learning and teaching and the relationship between them. This paper discusses the relationship between metaphor and foreign language learning from three aspects: vocabulary, foreign language communicative competence and culture. Finally, this paper summarizes the implications of metaphor for foreign language teaching: developing metaphoric awareness, strengthening metaphoric competence and using metaphor analysis in teaching evaluation.

‘To study is not to create something but to create oneself’: an ontological turn in translator education and training

ABSTRACT In academic environments ruled by managerialist philosophies, learning as doing, as outcomes, prevails. This work complicates the equation by taking up learning as becoming. Through the prism of learning metaphors, which apart from construction and transmission have not been fully explored in our discipline, especially the potential of Bildung, we seek to make a case that naming an ontological turn helps us orient our priorities, even if the turn is already with us in translation and interpreting in such attributes and practices as affect, voice, creativity, identity, subjectivity, and self-reflection.

A multimodal investigation of EFL upper-intermediate learners’ conceptual metaphors of language learning with some psychological implications

Increased attention has been directed toward utilizing visual modes because linguistic modes cannot accurately depict L2 learners’ metaphorical conceptions of their language-acquisition experiences. The goal of this study was to investigate the mental images that Saudi EFL students may have in mind while learning a foreign language. To this end, both verbal and nonverbal metaphorical conceptions were investigated. An experimental group of 12 students was randomly selected. Both the learners’ written responses and drawn descriptions were evaluated to tap into the learners’ mental representations of foreign language learning. The multimodality-based analysis of the upper-intermediate learners’ metaphors demonstrated that the EFL learners’ metaphorical verbal and non-verbal representations had the same perspectives on learning a foreign language. The learners’ positive attitudes were also revealed by the extracted metaphorical concepts. Most of the metaphorical representations showed language learning as an exciting and uniquely personal experience. Few metaphorical representations showed that learning English was an awful experience.

On the Misappropriation of Spatial Metaphors in Online Learning

In online educational systems, teachers often replicate pedagogical methods, and online institutions replicate systems and structures used by their in-person counterparts, the only purpose of which was to solve problems created by having to teach in a physical environment. Likewise, virtual learning environments often attempt to replicate features of their physical counterparts, thereby weakly replicating in software the problems that in-person teachers had to solve. This has contributed to a vicious circle of problem creation and problem solving that benefits no one. In this paper I argue that the term ‘environment’ is a dangerously misleading metaphor for the online systems we build to support learning, that leads to poor pedagogical choices and weak digital solutions. I propose an alternative metaphor of infrastructure and services that can enable more flexible, learner-driven, and digitally native ways of designing systems (including the tools, pedagogies, and structures) to support learning.

From Assessment for Learning to Assessment for Expansion: Proposing a New Paradigm of Assessment as a Sociocultural Practice

Although the importance of formative assessment has been recognized worldwide, the theoretical foundation is insufficiently captured within a broader sociocultural context that promotes teachers and students building an assessment culture. This study proposes a theoretical framework that supports the claim that formative assessment aims to accelerate an agentic process of transforming and improving the teaching–learning activity systems rather than helping teachers mold students with traditional values and cultural discourses. The characteristics of formative assessment were organized for each of the learning metaphors: acquisition, participation, and expansion. In this paper, assessment for expansion is defined as a form of formative assessment to facilitate expansive learning toward a process of making teaching–learning better, of which the functional core is sociocultural feedback with reference to situational criteria. Next, the theoretical discussions demonstrate that assessment for expansion emerges from making a third space and forming a culturally fitted tool for realistic and sustainable practical judgements. These conditions, which work within a continuum of problematic, ends-in-view, and expanded contexts, recognize the impact of assessments in associating a single student’s voice with a school- and community-wide problem. In conclusion, the possibilities and challenges of assessment for expansion are discussed from theoretical and practical perspectives.

Addressing progressive educational reforms: Fusing acquisition approaches and participation in Chinese entrepreneurship education

Entrepreneurship education and pedagogic reforms advocating the increased use of progressive educational methods have been promoted by the Chinese government. In practice, this has led to a fusion of the more traditional teaching approach and more progressive approaches. This has led to calls for entrepreneurship education to be contextualized within the Chinese context, against the backdrop of the progressive pedagogic reforms. This paper addresses this by exploring how Chinese educators are responding to directives encouraging progressive pedagogic entrepreneurship education, by applying the lens of Sfard's knowledge acquisition and participation-orientation learning metaphors. Interviews were conducted with fifteen educators and analysis of their narratives of practice was undertaken to identify knowledge acquisition and participation-orientation metaphors to elicit the approaches adopted in the classroom. The results indicate that both acquisition and participation approaches are adopted by educators, but in a way that reflects the traditional and cultural heritage that values knowledge. Educators still relied heavily on the transmission-acquisition metaphor, however the encouragement to introduce more progressive practices could be observed in two ways, the constructivist acquisition metaphor, and the participation metaphor. The former appeared more developed and the latter less so, although both are desirable in the light of the education reforms.

Analysing metaphorical pebbles in English RE

This paper is a critical analysis of the use of metaphors in English Religious Education (RE). It is grounded in the educational theory of Anna Sfard (a professor of Mathematics) who has written about learning metaphors, before considering some of the metaphoric language used in English education generally and RE specifically. It will examine carefully at how the metaphors implicit within the Commission on RE Report might help us interpret it, considering particularly the National Entitlement and note the changes to these metaphors in the newly adapted national entitlement in the REC Worldviews’ Project Draft Handbook. It will then turn (metaphorically) to the Research Review into RE from Ofsted and examine some aspects of that through metaphorical lenses. It will consider the metaphors inherent in Ofsted’s Deep Dive methodology, the work of Fordham, Counsell and the Early Career Framework and Core Content framework materials. The paper will conclude with some thoughts about RE as a subject discourse, suggesting that RE continues to have an identity crisis, which is not helped by a disciplinary, or a worldview, approach.

Novel metaphors for a novel school: Narratives, voices and experiences from pre-service teachers engaged in service-learning in Spain

In this article, we analyze a service-learning experience developed in a class of the major in Primary Education Teaching at the University of Malaga, in Andalusia, Spain, by resorting to the metaphors produced by pre-service teachers in the narrative and reflective pieces written for classwork. As a result, we unearthed a constellation of metaphors organized into two main axes: (1) metaphors for school success; (2) metaphors for learning and teaching. In our interpretation, the experience makes it possible for the emergence of novel metaphors which resonate with a more dialogical and solidary educational praxis compared to participants’ own schooling experiences.

Story, Metaphor, and Altruism in Cross-Cultural Teaching and Learning

The Emory-Tibet Science Initiative (ETSI) is a cross-cultural exchange of Western and Tibetan Buddhist education and scholarship. In this partnership between the Dalai Lama Foundation and Emory University, two visiting Western scientists to Sera, Gaden, and Drepung Monasteries and two monastics who studied at Emory University reflect on their experiences teaching and learning from Western and Buddhist perspectives as part of the ETSI program. Specifically, authors explore the power of story, metaphor, and altruism in Buddhist and Western ways of teaching and learning. Authors consider the pedagogical similarities between (1) the variations of the Greek Method of Loci (Memory Palace) and the paintings and temple decorations found throughout Tibetan architecture and (2) the role of altruism and intrinsic motivation in learning outcomes. Current psychological and neurobiological evidence for the increased recall of episodic memories present in both Buddhist and Western use of story, metaphor, and intrinsic motivation associated with altruism will highlight the underlying principles that support these ancient methods. Finally, considerations on how each perspective informs the other is discussed, as well as practical suggestions for integrating methods across cultures.

The Short-Term Reliability of Metaphors as an Assessment Method

Metaphors are assumed to be a means of accessing implicit aspects of cognition. Metaphors, therefore, have been increasingly used in educational science as an innovative tool to examine a broad range of constructs. However, there are both empirical findings and theoretical considerations suggesting that metaphors are also by experiences that are salient just in the moment of production of the metaphor. Therefore, we examined in a sample of N = 95 students and professionals whether the metaphors of learning and the underlying conceptualization of learning that influence whether students adopt a deep or a surface approach in learning remained stable across 3 weeks. Results showed that although the sources on which the metaphors drew were subject to change, the underlying conceptualization of learning remained stable. However, there were no differences in the stability of metaphors in both groups. It be can concluded, therefore, that metaphors can be used as an indicator for underlying constructs such as the understanding of learning.

Towards Dialogic Metaphors of Learning – from Socialization to Authoring

The background of the article is an interest in theories of learning and the metaphors of learning they build on and propagate. The basic argument is that the discursive construction of learning plays a central role in theoretical perspectives in research but also in discussions of societal issues in a wider sense. An initial observation is that current metaphors of learning oscillate between emphasizing socializing/reproductive dimensions and perspectives which foreground new-thinking transformations of existing collective knowledge; the culturally given. Hence, our aim is to explore conceptions of learning underpinning dominant theoretical perspectives as behaviorism, cognitivism, pragmatism, and various sociocultural traditions, in the light of this theoretical tension. Our conclusion is that the views of communication and learning inherent to the radical dialogic perspective on communication that stresses the unfinalizable nature of knowing, offered by Bakhtin, add to our understanding of how learning may be conceptualized in contemporary society. Such a dialogic perspective, emphasizing open-ended agency, plurality of voices, and performative potentials of creatively expressing opinions when learning from each other, offers a perspective on learning worth considering in times of diversity, unpredictable risks, and the need for critical self-reflexivity.

Teaching Machines to Learn by Metaphors

Humans have an uncanny ability to learn new concepts with very few examples. Cognitive theories have suggested that this is done by utilizing prior experience of related tasks. We propose to emulate this process in machines, by transforming new problems into old ones. These transformations are called metaphors. Obviously, the learner is not given a metaphor, but must acquire one through a learning process. We show that learning metaphors yield better results than existing transfer learning methods. Moreover, we argue that metaphors give a qualitative assessment of task relatedness.

Exploring students’ metaphors for learning in Western Sydney schools

ABSTRACT In both academic and policy spaces, learning is often cast as lifelong, dynamic, constructive and in particular, agentic. Despite this focus students’ voices are rarely privileged in these spaces – especially in policy. We respond to this oversight by deploying Foucault’s theories of knowledge to explore how students understand themselves as learners, considering this alongside dominant political and academic discursive constructions of learning. Using a metaphor card approach, we explored metaphors for learning articulated by students in longitudinal focus group interviews. Conducted over a two-year period with 47 students from four Western Sydney schools, student metaphors for learning were diverse and wide-ranging, frequently reflecting strategic approaches to learning that aligned with requirements of high stakes exit exams. Significantly, student descriptions of themselves as exhausted, passive containers of impermanent learning were at odds with national and international policy and higher education constructions of learning as ‘lifelong and agentic’. This contradiction raises critical questions about students’ experiences of learning in schools, the role of teacher education, and re-direction of university equity programmes aimed at increasing access and participation for educationally marginalised students.