Varieties of work related learning

Based on 30 interviews with and observations of professionals, 5 prototypical metaphors of learning are described and related to existing theories about learning. Two of the metaphors were previously described by Sfard: the acquisition and participation metaphors. As well, three new metaphors were found: the discovery metaphor, the apperception metaphor and the exercising metaphor. In an initial study, a newly devised questionnaire was tested with 713 elementary teachers, 92 principals and 33 support people. The five learning metaphors could be distinguished and proved to be reliable, although improvements were necessary. The correlations between the scales were as expected. Meaningful relations were found with the variables of the educational system, age, experience and educational level. In a second study, a revised questionnaire was tested with 556 professionals from 12 different organisations. The five learning metaphors proved to be more reliable than in the first study. The correlations between the scales were in line with expected patterns of correlations: implicit, explicit and social preferences correlated more with each other than with the other preferences. The expected differences between organisations, professions and groups were apparent and could be interpreted meaningfully. The discussion describes the practical use of the metaphors and suggestions for further research.     

Teachers' Educational Gestures and Habits of Practical Action: Edusemiotics as a Framework for Teachers' Education

When trying to help teachers cope with the critical situations they face in classrooms, public policies are mainly concerned with improving initial teacher training. I claim in this article that the role of lifelong learning should no longer be undermined and that the design of teachers' training should be supported by a thorough examination of the cognitive processes involved. A faulty view of cognition may explain both our emphasis on initial training and most of the difficulties faced in designing teachers' training. Searching existing alternative metaphors of cognition and investigating new ones constitutes a way of coping with these problems: first to design new forms of training, second to understand the processes involved in innovative training methods that have already been implemented. My focus in this article is precisely the ‘metaphor of cognition’ that underlies innovative teacher training methods. This metaphor is based on Peirce's pragmaticism, and it describes teachers' training as a process of taking and changing habits. This article mainly investigates the links between Peirce's later semiotics, Merleau‐Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception and Varela's theory of enaction, in order to propose a threefold definition of ‘habit’ and define the notion of ‘educational gesture’, which constitutes a translation of the concept of habit in the field of education and training.     

PAINTING WITH IMPASTO: METAPHORS,MIRRORS, AND REFLECTIVE REGRESSION IN MONTAIGNE'S “OF THE EDUCATION OF CHILDREN”

Analyzing Montaigne's triptych painting, “Of the Education of Children,” reveals a series of ever‐morphing, Dorian Gray–like canvases that depict metaphor mutations through which Montaigne defined education by distinguishing between schooling a child into a learned man and educating him into an able, active, and gentle person. Montaigne used metaphor and metaphor clusters to image key points in his educational philosophy, advanced his argument by intertwining, transmuting, and inverting metaphors, and thereby drew and vividly painted his philosophy of how to educate a person from cradle to coffin. Because the etymology and pronunciation of “essay” (from the French essai) support Montaigne's imaging and exploiting of this genre's creative potential, Virginia Worley begins by considering the term's etymology before positioning her analysis of Montaigne's work within metaphor research. She then examines the metaphors Montaigne used to paint the triptych word painting that embodies his philosophy of education: the meaning and value of educating in and for the art of living well.     

The Problem of Education Levels (Part 1): Conceptualising a Framework for Credit Accumulation and Transfer

Abstract

Current presentations of a Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) framework are based on a matrix with two dimensions: notional learning time and ‘general educational level”. The latter concept is currently presented in terms of hierarchical metaphors for understanding cognitive processes, organisational responsibilities, and experiential commitment. Each of these metaphors is at best highly questionable, and the assumption that they can be combined to form a CAT framework has more to do with managerial ideology than with educational theory. Furthermore, although the notion of an education ‘currency’ based on notional learning time is helpful in some respects, its use in combination with a hierarchy of levels means that the currency of educational credit is non‐convertible, revealing the limitations of the currency metaphor.     

Becoming Teacher: A/r/tographical Inquiry and Visualising Metaphor

A great deal has been written about the representational use of metaphor to understand teacher candidates’/new teachers’ conceptions of teacher practice. This article will discuss recent research that explored secondary visual art teacher candidates’/new teachers’ visualising of visual metaphors to provoke their a/r/tographical inquiry into their perceptions of practice. This article engages with the Deleuzian conception becoming as well as the ontology of difference to provoke the reimagination of metaphor in research. We offer new understandings about visualising the visual in research and the methodological implications of relational research practices.     

Elaborated metaphors support viable inferences about difficult science concepts

Instructional metaphors scaffold learning better when accompanied by an elaboration. Applying structure mapping theory, we developed and used an elaborated instructional metaphor (text and illustrations) for introductory chemistry concepts. In two studies (N ₁ = 44, N ₂ = 57), college students with little chemistry background read either the elaborated metaphor, sub‐concept metaphor statements (e.g. an atom is like a tile) only or (Study 2) sub‐concept labels (e.g. atom) only. When asked to write what they knew about the sub‐concept, those in the elaborated metaphor condition wrote more sophisticated domain inferences than those in the other condition(s), p < .05. The elaborated metaphor helped participants construct accurate pre‐conceptual mental models that could prepare them for future learning (i.e. acquisition of new knowledge). The results also suggested that acquisition of high‐level concepts may require active learner transactions with the analogue, as can be had in interactive instructional game worlds.     

隐喻对中国大学生英文阅读理解的影响

认知隐喻理论宣称语言中无数的隐喻表达可以追溯至有限数目的概念隐喻,这就意味着概念隐喻有可能在我们的语言学习中发挥积极的作用。本文以认知隐喻理论为基础,旨在探讨隐喻对中国大学生英文阅读理解的影响。本文用量的研究方法对广州某高校英语专业三年级54位学生隐喻知识培训前后所得阅读成绩进行分析,结果表明隐喻知识有助于他们的英语阅读理解。     

从概念隐喻角度探析大学英语词汇教学

概念隐喻普遍存在于人类的语言中,是人类用某一领域的经验来说明或理解另一类领域经验的认知活动。其跨域映射的认知机制为大学英语词汇教学提供了新视角：教师在教授英语词汇时可以对隐喻性词义进行分析,引导学生在阅读中自主地构建概念隐喻,加强英汉概念隐喻文化内涵的认知。     

Functions of Metaphor in Teaching and Teacher Education: A review essay

This article reviews the pertinent research literature on metaphors in teaching and teacher education. The main purpose is to explore these metaphors as evidences of prospective and practicing teachers' reasoning about teaching, learning, and schooling. The current review is organized around the major functions of metaphor in education. In this way, it is intended to contribute to the existing scholarly research in the field of teaching and teacher education stemming largely from metaphor analysis. The present essay discusses 10 distinct functions of metaphor in education and provides illustrative studies for each function. It strongly argues for the inclusion of various educational metaphors in teacher education programs because of their functional benefits.     

Meaning profiles of dwellings,pathways, and metaphors in design: implications for education

The study deals with the roles and interrelations of the meaning-based assessments of dwellings, pathways and metaphors in design performance. It is grounded in the Meaning Theory [Kreitler, S., and H. Kreitler. 1990. The Cognitive Foundations of Personality Traits. New York: Plenum], which enables identifying the cognitive contents and processes underlying cognitive performance in different domains, thus rendering them more accessible to educational training. The objectives were to identify the components of the meaning profiles of dwellings, pathways, and metaphors as perceived by design students; to analyse their interrelations; and to examine which of the identified components of these constructs serve as best predictors of design performance aided by the use of metaphors. Participants were administered a design task and questionnaires about the Dimensional Profiles of Dwellings, Pathways, and Metaphors, based on the meaning system. Factors based on the factor analyses of the responses to the three questionnaires were used in regression analyses as predictors of the performance score in a design task. The following three factors of the dimensional meaning profiles of metaphors were significant predictors of design performance: sensory, functional, and structural evaluations. Implications for design education are discussed, primarily concerning the important role of metaphor in design problem-solving.     

Metaphors for Change

Abstract

A metaphor is the symbolic representation of an idea or a concept in communication. In the counseling context, the use of metaphors provides an alternative intervention strategy when direct communication is ineffective or undesirable. Four critical aspects of the counseling process-communicating understanding, increasing motivation, overcoming resistance, and facilitating solutions-can be enhanced through the use of metaphors. Case examples demonstrating the efficacy and integration of therapeutic metaphors in a college counseling setting are provided.     

Students as Partial Employees: A Metaphor for the Student-Institution Interaction

We propose a new metaphor for describing the interaction between students and their institutions of higher education, students as partial employees. Several current metaphors anchored in the quality movement are reviewed to provide a background for this new way of viewing today's college students. This article provides the readers with examples of the metaphor in use and describes why the partial employee transcends the academic and administrative structures of higher education.     

基于教育隐喻的学生学业成就评价模式探析

教育隐喻是人们对教育的一种生动形象的表达方式,分析教育隐喻可以使人们清楚地洞察其背后蕴含的理念与价值。通过例举教育即工业生产、教育即医院诊治、教育即人生旅行、教育即农业培育等四种教育隐喻来透视与之相对应的四种学生学业成就评价模式,即目标达成模式、诊断反馈模式、过程情境模式、主体参照模式的质的规定性与优缺点,反思在课程改革中对学生学业成就进行综合的、全方位的评价的必然与应然。     

教育人类学的“成长”隐喻与教师的专业发展

教育人类学自诞生以来,就一直以人类学的概念、原理与方法来研究教育现象。教育人类学的个体成长隐喻,对教师专业发展有重要的启示。教育人类学的"震撼"隐喻,喻指个体成长中的震撼经历。对教师而言,"境遇性"就是重要的震撼经历。教育人类学的"沉醉"隐喻,指的是人在活动中的投入状态。对教师而言,"沉醉"意味着教师的非理性投入精神。教育人类学的"民族"隐喻,指的是不同地域的人深受文化的影响。为此,要突出教师发展的"文化性"。教育人类学"自由"隐喻认为个体发展是自主的。因此,它突出教师发展的内在超越性。     

Photo-elicitation: reflexivity on method,analysis, and graphic portraits

In this methodological discussion, the authors detail and reflect on the processes of using photo-elicitation interviewing as a way to align with positive qualitative methodologies, to gain access to participant beliefs and values, and to highlight participant voices through their choices of words and visuals. A review of the literature and an overview of the educational research experiences leading to the discussion are included. Next, the discoveries regarding what is methodologically new and/or valuable concerning this visual method is presented. In the final section, the authors reflexively contemplate aspects of visual methodological processes in an effort to address methodological crossroads of potential and tension including: (1) the potential of decontextualized photos, (2) photos as metaphors of meaning, (3) photos as representations of inherent meaning, (4) participant empowerment, and (5) graphic representation or graphic portraits.     

Investigating teachers’ images of mathematics

Research suggests that understanding new images of mathematics is very challenging and can contribute to teacher resistance. An explicit exploration of personal views of mathematics may be necessary for pedagogical change. One possible way for exploring these images is through mathematical metaphors. As metaphors focus on similarities, they can be used to express already-held perceptions about the nature of mathematics. In addition to providing a way of talking about current views of mathematics, the analogous dimensions of metaphors can prompt new ways of thinking about these images. In this article, I consider the use of metaphors as a strategy for explicating elementary teachers’ views of mathematics. I claim that the investigation of metaphors of mathematics helped create a shared communicative space and enhanced the quality of the discussion with the teachers. In particular, our exploration of the metaphor mathematics is a language encouraged a consideration of the humanistic dimensions of mathematics and contributed to a varied re-imaging of mathematics.     

英语饮食词汇的隐喻和转喻分析

认知语言学家认为隐喻和转喻不仅是修辞现象,更是认知思维方式。隐喻是通过另一类事物来理解和经历某一类事物的认知活动。转喻是在同一理想化认知模型中一个概念实体为另一概念实体提供心理可及的认知过程。隐喻和转喻理论为词义演变的研究提供了一个新的视角。隐喻和转喻两种认知机制在英语饮食词语的语义延伸中起着重要作用。     

‘Teacher as Professional’ as Metaphor: What it Highlights and What it Hides

This article is concerned with the downsides of using the language of professionalism in educational discourse. It suggests that the language of professionalization can be a powerful rhetorical device for promoting welcome and necessary changes in the field of teaching but that, in doing so, it can unintentionally misrepresent the work that teachers do. Taking as a theoretical framework Lakoff and Johnson's metaphor theory, the article argues that ‘teacher as professional’ should be seen as a metaphor of teaching on par with other metaphors familiar from the history of educational thought. What metaphors of teaching have in common, the article advances, is that they systematically highlight certain aspects of teaching while hiding others. The significance of this conclusion is twofold. Appreciating the limits of the ‘teacher as professional’ metaphor provides guidance about how to use more effectively ‘professionalism’ as a normative standard for promoting change in teaching and teacher education. Second, appreciating the metaphorical character of ‘teacher as professional’ has heuristic value in that it offers a novel explanation for the controversial trend towards conceptualising teaching in narrowly instructional terms.     

From Ends to Causes (and Back Again) by Metaphor: The Paradox of Natural Selection

Natural selection is one of the most famous metaphors in the history of science. Charles Darwin used the metaphor and the underlying analogy to frame his ideas about evolution and its main driving mechanism into a full-fledged theory. Because the metaphor turned out to be such a powerful epistemic tool, Darwin naturally assumed that he could also employ it as an educational tool to inform his contemporaries about his findings. Moreover, by using the metaphor Darwin was able to bring his theory in accordance with both the dominant philosophy of science in his time and the respected tradition of natural theology. However, as he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection in On the origin of species in 1859, the metaphor also turned out to have a serious downside. Because of its intentional overtones, his contemporaries systematically misunderstood his metaphor not as a natural mechanism causing evolution to occur but as an agent who works towards particular ends. The difference in success between natural selection as an epistemic tool and its failure as an educational tool is labelled as a paradox. We explain the paradox from a cognitive perspective and discuss the implications for teaching evolution.     

从认知语言学角度谈英语隐喻的翻译

隐喻历来被视为一种语言的异体表达方式而被纳入修辞学研究的范畴.传统翻译理论对隐喻的翻译研究也多以修辞为取向,把隐喻的翻译视为修辞层面的语际转换.认知语言学从一个全新的角度对隐喻做出了全新的解释--认为隐喻不仅是一种语言现象而且是人类重要的认知方式,对翻译而言,这无疑给隐喻的翻译研究提供了一个新的视角.本文从认知角度探讨隐喻翻译的尝试及具体策略.