Metaphor For Education Research Articles

Largeness and Light

Largeness and Light David Gessner I have lived in North Carolina for thirteen years. I know because my daughter is thirteen now and was only three months old when we moved here. A handy mnemonic device. I teach at a public university in this recently embattled state. Somewhat to my own surprise, I have grown to love teaching. A favorite image employed by my own favorite teacher, the biographer Walter Jackson Bate, was the opening of a window in a closed room. He saw it as a great metaphor for education, for the way that learning can help us escape the small and locked rooms of ourselves. He pointed out this metaphor in the poetry of Keats, which makes sense, as the orphaned Keats would have passed an obscure and unpoetic life were it not for his love of books and the inspiration of a few teachers and models. It is a straightforward formula: we are something and then a good teacher comes along and we are something else. I am thinking of this right now because of a controversy going on at my university. We are a cautious school overall, sometimes cautious to the point of cowardice, few of us trained in the bravery of resistance, and lately we have allowed a professor to abuse a student in a very public way, because we are afraid the professor will sue the school. This teacher has said some cruel and de-meaning things about the student, and defended those statements by claiming he has the right to free speech. But the point here isn't free speech. The point is that he is a teacher. And the point is that teachers open windows and don't slam them on their students' fingers. We are here to lift up, not pull down. We are here to offer possibilities, possibilities that can enlarge and free those we offer them to. I have always been fond of these lines of Wallace Stegner's: "Largeness is a lifelong matter." This is, it seems to me, the essence of education. You open the window and say, "Look, there is a larger world out there. A world beyond your present life and experience, beyond your preconceptions and prejudice." This hardly means that everyone is going to step out, or even look through, the open window, or that opening a window means your students will turn into Keatses. But if we each, as teachers, try to the best of our abilities to open windows, then we have done our job. [End Page 9] Of course I am talking about largeness in a time when the opposite reigns. How can we call for largeness, openness, and boldness when wherever we look we see smallness, bitterness, and meanness? We see this in Washington, in a certain glistening tower in New York, in Raleigh up the road, and right here where I teach. Each day when I head in to work, I drive below banners filled with words of elevated propaganda—words like excellence and soaring. But the words are empty unless we fill them. We can't say these things and allow their opposite. We can't be a place where smallness is business as usual. We can't allow for the tearing down of students. Aren't we all getting a little tired of being pushed around by bullies? Isn't it time to push back? "Honesty is the first step in greatness," said Samuel Johnson. There are those who think they have a monopoly on honesty, that they are being hushed because they are truth-sayers. But meanness, ignorance, hectoring, and bullying are not the kind of honesty Johnson had in mind. There is a greater honesty that goes beyond the tyranny of smallness, that sees daily ugliness as part of a vastly larger and more expansive whole, and that understands that while we should never flinch from telling the truth, we can also, through empathy and imagination, see many truths. It is an honesty that we can only attain if we look outward, so it makes sense that those who oppose it want to close as many windows as they can and make the world ever...

English

In this study, teachers’ perceptions of prospective Turkish teachers (that is, those who have completed their undergraduate studies) in the fields of Science, Mathematics and Social Sciences are investigated through teacher metaphors. These perceptions were classified in accordance with their answers to two open-ended questions within a metaphoric structure used as the data collection tool. This classification employs the tripartite metaphorical classification developed by Martínez et al. and includes the following perspectives: Transmissive, constructivist, and situative. In the study, 58 different teacher metaphors were identified. As a result of the research, metaphors within the Transmissive class were observed predominantly in prospective teachers of both groups, followed by Constructivist in prospective Science and Math teachers, and Situative in prospective Social Science teachers. Findings from the study are also discussed within the scope of relevant literature. Key words: Teaching perception, prospective teacher, teacher training, secondary education.

When theories become practice - a metaphorical analysis of adult-education school-leaders’ talk

Marketization has changed the education system. If we say that education is a market, this transforms the understanding of education and influences how people act. In this paper, adult-education school-leaders’ talk is analysed and seven metaphors for education are found: education as administration, market, matching, democracy, policy work, integration and learning. Exploring empirical metaphors provides a rich illustration of coinciding meanings. In line with studies on policy texts, economic metaphors are found to dominate. This should be understood not only as representing liberal ideology, as is often discussed in analyses of policy papers, but also as representing economic theory. In other words, contemporary adult education can be understood as driven by economic theories. The difference and relation between ideology and theory should be further examined since they have an impact on our society and on our everyday lives.

Metaphors Production and Comprehension by Qatari EFL Learners: A Cognitive Approach

The present study investigates the problems that face Qatari learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the production and comprehension of the metaphorical expressions. It aims to reach pedagogical insights related to EFL curriculum design and teaching metaphors. The sample of the study consisted of 40 Qatari students study English courses in the Department of Language and Literature as a requirement for their associate degree at the community college of Qatar. A questionnaire, writing test and interviews were used as instruments of the study. The findings of the study showed that the Qatari learners of EFL encountered difficulties in the comprehension and production of the conceptual metaphors due to their unfamiliarity with the culture of the English Language and their incapability to evaluate whether a statement is meant to be a metaphor or a literal one. Therefore, to raise the EFL learners’ awareness of the conceptual metaphors the materials of teaching EFL should focus on the social and cultural dimensions of the language.

Consequences of personal teaching metaphors for teacher identity and practice

Past research has clearly indicated that teachers’ metaphors can serve as a framework that moves our understanding of teaching forward by making more explicit the intuitive knowledge teachers hold about themselves, their classrooms, and their practice. Making explicit how metaphors uncover the understandings that guide the practices of in-service teachers, individually and collectively, can provide insight into the assumptions they hold about teaching and teaching practice. The purpose of this study was to explore how in-service teachers’ self-constructed metaphors revealed their perceptions of their roles, obligations, and assumptions about teaching and learning, and consider the implications of such exploration for teacher education and development. The four experienced teachers who participated in this study constructed personal teaching metaphors for which they provided an explanation. Analysis of the metaphors using positioning theory provided evidence that teaching metaphors capture the individual identity and specify the plotlines of teaching and the obligations, duties, and responsibilities of the teacher as well as the role of the teacher and others in the teacher’s practice. We found that each metaphor brought elements of identity and teaching practice together in unique and divergent ways. A subsequent cross-case analysis revealed common discourses of teaching: responsibility, nurturing, and caring, and teacher and student learning. Both the individual and cross-case analysis suggest the potential value of metaphor work for informing teacher education and professional development to advise teachers, teacher educators, school leaders, and policy makers.

Seeing through the metaphor: The OECD quality toolbox for early childhood

AbstractThis paper explores the idea of metaphor as a persuasive device, using as an example a recent OECD publication purporting to be a quality toolbox for early childhood education and care. Leaving aside the problematic notion of quality, we argue that there is a serious problem with the idea of education as something that can be done with a toolbox, particularly in the formative stages of young children’s education. We suggest that the OECD selection of the toolbox as a metaphor is a way of inserting international economic imperatives into local government education policy, in ways that the citizenry is not aware of. As with any metaphor for education, the selection highlights some aspects while hiding others, a concealment that can’t be exposed by intensifying one’s gaze without a change in perspective. To examine the extent of what remains hidden by the toolbox, we engage in creative play with some different metaphors for education, arguing that particular metaphors may serve to obfuscate rather than clarify, an artifice that is not acceptable from a body as influential and far-reaching as the OECD.

Analytical Study of Teacher Educators’ Metaphors of Teaching

Teaching metaphor is an important phenomenon which can be used to determine teachers’ perceptions regarding their job and their workplace (Turunen, 2003). This study was aimed to explore the metaphors of junior and senior teacher educators to get insights of what teaching was for them. A comparative analysis between the junior and senior teacher educators helped to understand how these metaphors changed over time. Data for the qualitative study were collected from the districts of Sargodha, Khushab and Mianwali situated in the province of Punjab, Pakistan. Fifty teacher educators teaching at postgraduate level participated in the study and filled in the survey questionnaire. The data were coded and analysed qualitatively. Six themes emerged from the data: religious obligations, economic activities, nature compatibility, life processes, emotional affiliations, and thought provoking activities.These themes were compatible with Chen’s (2013) classification of teachers’ personal metaphors. The implications of metaphors could be used to enhance critical thinking of teacher educators to improve the quality of education.

Metaphor in Education; Hidden but Effective

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the role of metaphor in education. The main thesis is that the metaphors shape our attitude towards education implicitly. With this aim in mind, first, the concept of metaphor is briefly introduced, and then three of the most famous metaphors that have been used in education (factories, gardening and travel), and their differences are discussed. Medical education is a long period that in different levels different purposes should be achieved. For instance, while in basic science teaching takes place in classrooms and labs, this will switch to bedside teaching in clinical years. It seems that none of the above mentioned metaphors is adequate for designing a curriculum in medical education and we need a combination of these three for a more comprehensive curriculum planning. Keywords: EDUCATION, MEDICAL EDUCATION, UNDERGRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION, METAPHOR, HUMANITIES, CURRICULUM

An Examination of Cross Sectional Change in Student’s Metaphorical Perceptions Towards Heat, Temperature and Energy Concepts

In science instruction, metaphors are an important means of realizing meaningful learning and conceptual formation. The current study aims to evaluate how the concepts of heat, temperature and energy are perceived by students in secondary school science classes and how the perceptions of these concepts vary depending on grade level (5 th , 6 th , 7 th and 8 th grades) based on the metaphors generated. The study group of the present research consists of 226 students selected from among 5 th , 6 th , 7 th and 8 th graders through criterion sampling method. Employing the descriptive method, the presents study collected its data through a metaphor questionnaire. The findings of the study revealed that there is a total of 176 metaphors were generated by students under four categories “Phenomenological-conceptual metaphors”, “Abstract metaphors”, “Environmental/daily metaphors” and “misconception metaphors”. When the findings were examined, it was seen that though there were some misconception detected about the concepts of heat, temperature and energy, conceptual changes in the other three categories vary depending on grade level. This variety needs to be discussed in relation to cognitive development and daily life. Some suggestions were made about the place and importance of metaphors in concept teaching for researchers and practitioners.

The rhizome: A problematic metaphor for teaching and learning in a MOOC

<p>Deleuze and Guattari’s principles of the rhizome were used to inform the design of a massive open online course (MOOC), <em>Rhizomatic Learning: The Community is the Curriculum</em>, which came to be known as Rhizo14. In a previous paper about learner experiences in this course our reported findings from a qualitative survey (which enabled anonymous responses) raised concerns about the ethics of using experimental pedagogies in designing MOOCs. In this paper, we continue this research and report learners’ understandings of the rhizome as applied in Rhizo14, from what participants have told us in email interviews and from our own reflections on participation in the course. Our findings reveal that many participants could relate to and welcomed the anti-authoritarian, anti-hierarchical characteristics of the rhizome, but that knowledge and understanding of Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptual principles of the rhizome was more difficult. Lack of engagement with theory and lack of appreciation of the incompleteness and complexities of the rhizome metaphor can result in negative consequences, such as imbalances in power relations and increased vulnerability for some learners.</p>

Metaphors Production and Comprehension by Qatari EFL learners: A Cognitive Approach

The present study investigates the problems that face Qatari learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in the production and comprehension of the metaphorical expressions. It aims to reach pedagogical insights related to EFL curriculum design and teaching metaphors. The sample of the study consisted of 40 Qatari students study English courses in the Department of Language and Literature as a requirement for their associate degree at the community college of Qatar. A questionnaire, writing test and interviews were used as instruments of the study. The findings of the study showed that the Qatari learners of EFL encountered difficulties in the comprehension and production of the conceptual metaphors due to their unfamiliarity with the culture of the English Language and their incapability to evaluate whether a statement is meant to be a metaphor or a literal one. Therefore, to raise the EFL learners’ awareness of the conceptual metaphors the materials of teaching EFL should focus on the social and cultural dimensions of the language.

Another Perspective

The value of joy in music education through composing (interrelated with performing, improvising, and listening) is proposed. Two types of joy experienced by the composer are discussed: cognitive emotion, or emotion in response to thought; and emotional cognition, or thought centered on emotion. While the Western classical tradition can effectively bridge to other musical traditions when approached joyously and ecumenically in whatever musical traditions teachers and students are immersed, composing constitutes a powerful means of knowing joy and a metaphor for music education.

Understanding Curriculum: the Australian Context, By Scott Webster and Ann Ryan, Cambridge University Press, 2014, £45.00, pb, 260 pp. ISBN 978107639317

This book is about passion for teaching and learning. The word ‘curriculum’ is used as a metaphor for education at any academic level. The book is composed of 12 chapters containing theoretical background and discussion about specific approaches to the development and delivery of a teaching curriculum, ranging from science and mathematics to fine arts and philosophy. These theoretical discussions focus on both traditional (or conservative) and progressive approaches to education and are accompanied by useful ‘reflective activities’ that help the reader deconstruct and apply underpinning pedagogical concepts and theories to their local context and circumstances. Moreover, each of the chapters contains a set of ‘personal reflections’ that give a human touch to teaching and learning activities in ‘a real life’ setting. Although the book has a focus on the Australian context and curriculum, its messages are universal and applicable to all those who love conveying knowledge or imparting skills to younger generations. The book also contains an interesting chapter on Indigenous education that focuses on the experiences of a young non-Indigenous teacher who lived and taught in a remote Aboriginal community school in the Northern Territory. Her personal reflections on this unique intercultural encounter and challenging teaching environment make the book relevant to any other multicultural corner of the world. This can be exemplified by the following quote: ‘Understanding multiple ways of knowing becomes increasingly important, as we acknowledge that differing standpoints inform how we human persons think and experience the world’. Academics involved in medical education rarely have any formal training in teaching. We learn how to teach on the job and in the field and make up for pedagogical shortcomings by an abundance of energy and enthusiasm. Universities around the world are moving towards 4-year graduate medical courses, resulting in a significant reduction in discipline-specific teaching time. With shorter rotations, we need to use our time with students judiciously to ensure that they learn what is needed to cover the core components of the curriculum. Importantly, for an unpopular specialty such as psychiatry, we must also develop more creative and innovative teaching strategies to attract medical students to the ‘endangered’ discipline of psychiatry. The combination of reflective activities and discussion of contemporary educational topics allow this book to serve as a suitable guide for improving psychiatric education that will assist in the survival of psychiatry as a respected career choice and profession.

Teaching Conceptual Metaphors to EFL Learners in the European Space of Higher Education

AbstractThe CEFR encourages a more effective international communication. Given that effective communication in a L2 involves the ability to use metaphors, this figure becomes of prime importance to the teaching of languages. The present study applies a methodology for teaching English metaphors and idioms following the tenets of Cognitive Linguistics (CL). It argues the importance of “metaphoric competence”, and, by a conceptual metaphor awareness method, it advocates the usefulness of teaching metaphors and idioms and its explicit inclusion in a language syllabus aimed at increasing proficiency in L2. This conceptual basis for language is almost entirely unavailable to L2 learners in course books and reference materials. This paper reviews the scope of metaphor and metaphoric competence in the context of second-language teaching and learning, and provides some tips on how to teach metaphors and idioms effectively in a foreign language context. By analizing the systematicity and experiential basis of the expressions subject of study, it offers some pedagogical suggestions and teaching material that can facilitate the acquisition of idiomatic expressions by raising awareness of the conceptual metaphors that underlie them.

Metaphors in the mirror: The influence of teaching metaphors in a medical education programme

AbstractMedical students often face problems in using and understanding metaphors when communicating with a patient or reading a scientific paper. These figures of speech constitute an interpretative problem and students need key strategies to facilitate metaphor comprehension and disambiguation of meaning. This article examines how medical students’ strategies of metaphor comprehension could be improved by specific teaching on metaphors using a Cognitive Linguistics approach. Medical students’ ability to comprehend mirror neuron metaphors was assessed comparing the performance of students who did not receive any instruction about metaphoric extension strategies after a lesson on mirror neurons with the performance of students who received a special lesson both on mirror neurons and on metaphoric extension strategies. Students who received specific teaching on metaphor comprehension strategies performed better (85 %) and were more likely to use analogical reasoning and contextual clues than those who did not receive any specific teaching (55 %), who tended to adopt a violation strategy. Thus, their ability to give an exhaustive reinterpretation of metaphors seems to be affected by their ability to manage metaphoric extension strategies. These findings suggest that introducing a Cognitive Linguistics approach and using metaphoric extension strategies to aid metaphor comprehension may be an active and productive teaching strategy in a medical education programme.

Analysis of the school culture in terms of metaphors based on the principal change

In this study, it is aimed to investigate the students' and teachers' perceptions of the principal and the effects of principal change on these perceptions through metaphors. The data have been gathered from the same and similar study groups (10 students and 10 teachers from the same high school) in the same school in the education years of 2008-9 and 2013-14. The analysis of the school culture in terms of metaphors based on the principal change is aimed. In this qualitative study, in order to get the data, a semi-structured form, which has been produced by the researchers, has been used and the gathered data have been analyzed by coding. The findings have shown that metaphors stated by the teachers contain a more critical point of view. In addition, it is seen that the change of the principal has affected the student metaphors (became more critical and negative) more than the teacher metaphors as teacher metaphors haven't been affected by this change. Among the positive-neutral metaphors, there are "order provider, bringing people to the further, balance supporter, orchestra conductor, the foundation of a building, etc.". "Politician, king of the school, sultan, dictator dad, a robot equipped with perfect behaviors and values and never makes a mistake, etc." are some of the negative ones.

Flight of Transcendence: Exploring Flight as a Metaphor for Transcendent Teaching and Learning

This paper explores flight as a metaphor for transcendence in teaching and learning through an examination of Philip Phenix’s (1975) work, “Transcendence and the Curriculum,” combined with personal reflections, poetry, and an investigation of the scientific workings of flight. This journey of understanding begins with poetic reflections on the sensations of flight, including fear, boxed in limitations, and the motivation of our sense of wonder. The article then examines and interprets the four forces that act on an object in flight as metaphors for the elements of transcendent teaching and learning. The goal of this article is to understand the forces at work in our experiences of transcendence in the classroom and to remind us to run head first into the wind and soar.

Research as Creative Practice: Two Metaphors for Teaching and Learning

The authors recommend geography and conversation as generative metaphors for teaching and learning creative research methods.—

Universal Educational Metaphors

The universal educational metaphors become a prism through which one can examine an integrated educational Text. Education is a cultural-historical industry which provides for needs of a society a definite type of person. The article examines universal metaphors, such as “educational walk”, “prayer as a labor”, “educational trip”, “industrial workshop” and “pied piper”, which are useful tools for study and evaluation of changes and continuity in the historical-cultural industry.

Commedia dell'Arte as a Metaphor for the Art of Teaching

With my background in acting, stagecraft, and some knowledge of theatre history from high school and college, it was natural for me as a novice teacher to think about theatre as a metaphor for teaching. In this article I will discuss how over my career I conceived of teaching in terms of theatrical metaphors, and make a comparison with a common metaphor of teaching as coaching.