Abstract
AbstractPrevious research suggests that the use of metaphors in science education have both possibilities and challenges. In this study, we analyse the role of metaphors in meaning-making in the upper primary science classroom. We investigate the potential of metaphors about nutrient uptake occurring in classrooms in which an animation was used. To identify metaphors in the classroom interaction, we have applied an analysis according to systemic-functional grammar (SFG), rooted in social semiotic theory. The present study indicates that the use of metaphors can play an important role in scientific meaning-making, since, in that way, students and teachers can make meaning about scientific processes and functions before having access to the scientific terminology. However, if metaphors are to be functional tools for meaning-making in science education, the teacher has an important role to play in, among other things, explicitly connecting the metaphors and everyday language to scientific concepts. We argue that metaphors based on functional similarity have a high affordance for making meaning about complex processes, such as nutrient uptake.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference33 articles.
1. Airey, J. (2015). Social semiotics in higher education: Examples from teaching and learning in undergraduate physics. In: SACF singapore-sweden excellence seminars, swedish foundation for international cooperation in research in higher education (STINT) (pp. 103).
2. Airey, J., & Eriksson, U. (2019). Unpacking the hertzsprung-russell diagram: A social semiotic analysis of the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of a central resource in Astronomy. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 99–107. https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.137.
3. Andersen, T. H., Petersen, U. H., & Smedegaard, F. (2002). Metafunctional Profile: Danish. In Proceedings of the 14th Euro-International Systemic Functional Linguistics Workshop. Available online: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Thomas-Hestbaek-Andersen/publication/235914866_Metafunctional_Profile_Danish/links/02bfe5141ac37bde6d000000/Metafunctional-Profile-Danish.pdf (accessed 17 March 2022).
4. Aubusson, P. J., Harrison, A. G., & Ritchie, S. M. (2006). Metaphor and analogy. In P. J. Aubusson, A. G. Harrison, & S. M. Ritchie (Eds.), Metaphor and analogy in Science Education (Vol. 30, pp. 1–9). Science & Technology Education Library.
5. Bezemer, J., & Kress, G. (2008). Writing in multimodal texts: A social semiotic account of designs for learning. Written Communication, 25(2), 166–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088307313177.