Understanding the Greenhouse Effect by Embodiment – Analysing and Using Students' and Scientists' Conceptual Resources

Over the last 20 years, science education studies have reported that there are very different understandings among students of science regarding the key aspects of climate change. We used the cognitive linguistic framework of experientialism to shed new light on this valuable pool of studies to identify the conceptual resources of understanding climate change. In our study, we interviewed 35 secondary school students on their understanding of the greenhouse effect and analysed the conceptions of climate scientists as drawn from textbooks and research reports. We analysed all data by metaphor analysis and qualitative content analysis to gain insight into students' and scientists' resources for understanding. In our analysis, we found that students and scientists refer to the same schemata to understand the greenhouse effect. We categorised their conceptions into three different principles the conceptions are based on: warming by more input, warming by less output, and warming by a new equilibrium. By interrelating students' and scientists' conceptions, we identified the students' learning demand: First, our students were afforded with experiences regarding the interactions of electromagnetic radiation and CO₂. Second, our students reflected about the experience-based schemata they use as source domains for metaphorical understanding of the greenhouse effect. By uncovering the—mostly unconscious—deployed schemata, we gave students access to their source domains. We implemented these teaching guidelines in interventions and evaluated them in teaching experiments to develop evidence-based and theory-guided learning activities on the greenhouse effect.     

Using Metaphorical Models for Describing Glaciers

To date, there has only been little conceptual change research regarding conceptions about glaciers. This study used the theoretical background of embodied cognition to reconstruct different metaphorical concepts with respect to the structure of a glacier. Applying the Model of Educational Reconstruction, the conceptions of students and scientists regarding glaciers were analysed. Students' conceptions were the result of teaching experiments whereby students received instruction about glaciers and ice ages and were then interviewed about their understandings. Scientists' conceptions were based on analyses of textbooks. Accordingly, four conceptual metaphors regarding the concept of a glacier were reconstructed: a glacier is a body of ice; a glacier is a container; a glacier is a reflexive body and a glacier is a flow. Students and scientists differ with respect to in which context they apply each conceptual metaphor. It was observed, however, that students vacillate among the various conceptual metaphors as they solve tasks. While the subject context of the task activates a specific conceptual metaphor, within the discussion about the solution, the students were able to adapt their conception by changing the conceptual metaphor. Educational strategies for teaching students about glaciers require specific language to activate the appropriate conceptual metaphors and explicit reflection regarding the various conceptual metaphors.     

综合英语教学中的隐喻能力研究

为提高综合英语教学效率,在词汇扩充、句子和语篇理解以及文化教学等方面促进学生隐喻能力的掌握,在词汇上,利用词汇多层意义之间的隐喻联系,帮助学生理解和运用词汇;在语句分析上,借助具体有形的事物来谈论抽象的事物,进行语句分析与理解;在语篇上,隐喻起着语篇衔接和连贯作用,有助于篇章理解;在文化教学上,通过中英不同的隐喻袁达式,学习西方的思维方式。     

When the atmosphere warms it rains and ice melts: seventh grade students’ conceptions of a climate system

Although many environmental and science educators have explored students’ conceptual understandings, misconceptions, and knowledge of the greenhouse effect, global warming, and climate change, few have investigated the ways students conceptualize climate as a system or how components of the system influence climate. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to begin the process of understanding how US students conceptualize a climate system. A total of 42 seventh grade students (ages 12–13) from the Midwest completed an open-response task. From the inductive analysis of student written responses, 22 codes emerged that reflected students’ conceptions of the climate system. From these codes, three path diagrams were constructed that illustrate these students’ conceptions about how a climate system influences climate and how greenhouse gases and global warming impact the climate system. A generalized model of students’ conception of a climate system was generated. Students in this study conceptualized a climate system in a unidirectional, linear, cause and effect relationship that emphasized the atmospheric component of the climate system.     

Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching

In recent years, researchers have become aware of the experiential grounding of scientific thought. Accordingly, research has shown that metaphorical mappings between experience-based source domains and abstract target domains are omnipresent in everyday and scientific language. The theory of conceptual metaphor explains these findings based on the assumption that understanding is embodied. Embodied understanding arises from recurrent bodily and social experience with our environment. As our perception is adapted to a medium-scale dimension, our embodied conceptions originate from this mesocosmic scale. With respect to this epistemological principle, we distinguish between micro-, meso- and macrocosmic phenomena. We use these insights to analyse how external representations of phenomena in the micro- and macrocosm can foster learning when they (a) address the students’ learning demand by affording a mesocosmic experience or (b) assist reflection on embodied conceptions by representing their image schematic structure. We base our considerations on empirical evidence from teaching experiments on phenomena from the microcosm (microbial growth and signal conduction in neurons) and the macrocosm (greenhouse effect and carbon cycle). We discuss how the theory of conceptual metaphor can inform the development of external representations.     

隐喻思维与隐喻性话语的关系刍议

认知隐喻理论是近年来隐喻研究的重要派别之一,主要从人们日常的认知思维角度研究隐喻性话语。本文围绕隐喻思维与隐喻性话语的关系,从原始人类神话思维的角度,论述了隐喻是一种思维方式的观点;从思维和言语的关系的角度,论述了隐喻思维是在隐喻性话语中实现出来的观点;最后,简要论述了作为日常思维实现的隐喻性话语的表达与理解问题。     

School Students’ Conceptions about Biodiversity Loss: Definitions, Reasons, Results and Solutions

Environmental degradation stemming from anthropocentric causes threatens the biodiversity more than ever before, leading scholars to warn governments about the impending consequences of biodiversity loss (BL). At this point, it is of great importance to study the public’s conceptions of BL in order to identify significant educational implications. However, a review of the literature reveals a relatively small body of research about the public understanding of BL. In this qualitative study, we thus strived to elicit Turkish school students’ conceptions about BL using a written questionnaire including open-ended questions with respect to the definition of biodiversity as well as reasons for, results of and solutions to BL. The sample consisted of 245 school students in a relatively small city. A two-staged content analysis was run on the responses. The results showed that school students most commonly preferred species-focused definitions of biodiversity and understood BL through such various conceptual patterns as, ‘balance of nature’, ‘forest’, ‘global warming’, ‘hunting’ and ‘indirect conservation’. At the end of the paper, the possible educational implications and future perspectives were discussed.     

Helping the Gifted Escape Metaphorical Entrapment

Linguists and philosophers have revealed the powerful shaping influences of metaphor on thought. Metaphorical frameworks have inspired and confined theories of mind, research paradigms, and even conceptions of morality in the larger sociopolitical environment. This paper explores these strong metaphorical influences on thought and action with special attention to sociopolitical and moral dimensions. It reveals profound metaphorical effects on the functioning of minds as well as ideological, liberal and conservative conceptions of aspirations, self-fulfillment, success, and morality. The analysis suggests the need for more attention to metaphorical analysis and the development of moral imagination in the education of the gifted.     

概念隐喻理论在大学英语教学中的应用——以新视野大学英语第二册为例

通过新视野大学英语第二册课文中的实例阐释概念隐喻理论对隐喻意义构建的影响,并探讨如何基于概念隐喻理论加强大学英语教学,对培养学生的隐喻认知和运用能力,具有重要的教学实践意义。     

Metaphor as a methodological tool: identifying teachers’ social justice dispositions across diverse secondary school settings

This article investigates the social justice dispositions of teachers and principals in secondary schools as inferred from their metaphoric expressions. Drawing on a Bourdieuian account of disposition, our focus is the use of metaphor as a methodological tool to identify and reveal these otherwise latent forces within our data. Our analysis shows evidence of redistributive, recognitive and activist conceptions of social justice. We argue that these three social justice dispositions may be insufficient to meaningfully address persisting inequalities in the school system and that a capability-based social justice disposition – absent in our data – is needed. We conclude by highlighting that: social justice dispositions can change; a valid interpretation of metaphors requires ‘contextual stabilization’; and metaphors for social justice are differently constructed in different contexts, influenced by the different social, cultural and material conditions of schools.     

‘Being black is like being a soldier in Iraq’: metaphorical expressions of blackness in an urban community

Metaphor and metaphorical expressions are phenomenon of interest in teacher education research, critical race literature, and research on black communicative practices. Only marginal concerted attention has been paid to students’ metaphorical expressions, and what these expressions might tell us about students’ racial identities and lived experiences. This study explores the metaphorical language that nine black youth used to describe what it means to be black in their social and political context. Data collected through the metaphor elicitation prompt, ‘Being black is like …,’ is presented to probe participants’ understandings of race, racial identity, and urban society. Conclusions indicate that abstract or indirect conversations about race may provide teachers and other hearers of students’ metaphors a greater understanding of and empathy toward students’ needs, experiences, and identities.     

图式理论与英语语篇中的隐喻理解程序

由于文化差异，中国英语学习者对英语语篇中的隐喻理解通常出现困惑。针对这一问题，文章以图式理论为指导并根据隐喻特点及某些相关的运作机制，从内容图式(content schemata)、语言图式(1inguistic schemata)及文化图式(cultural schemata)三个角度来分析英语语篇中的隐喻理解程序特点，并指出了相应的英语隐喻理解策略。     

Students’ conceptions of good teaching in three different disciplines

This paper explores students’ conceptions of good teaching in three different disciplines. Moreover, the aim is to explore the relation between these conceptions and students’ approaches to learning by combining qualitative and quantitative methods. A total of 695 students from the Faculties of Behavioural Sciences, Law and Veterinary Medicine participated in the study. The students’ conceptions of good teaching were analysed using a qualitative content analysis. Furthermore, the students were assigned to homogenous subgroups on the basis of their responses to items measuring approaches to learning and the differences between these subgroups and the students’ conceptions were examined. The association between the conceptions, disciplines and approaches to learning were examined using Chi‐square tests. Twenty‐one dimensions were created from the data and 12 of them differed between the disciplines. Only one dimension differed between the student groups. The study suggests that there is disciplinary variation in students’ conceptions of good teaching and universities should take this into account in the development process of the student evaluation system.     

Reflecting on Scientists’ Activity Based on Science Fiction Stories Written by Secondary Students

In this article the authors resort to a qualitative analysis of the plot of science fiction stories about a group of scientists, written by two 11th‐grade Earth and Life Science students (aged 17), and to semi‐structured interviews, with the double purpose of diagnosing their conceptions of the nature of science (namely, as regards scientists’ activity), and discussing the potentialities of this methodology in terms of research and education in science. The adopted methodology proved particularly effective in diagnosing the students’ conceptions of scientists’ characteristics, scientific activity, and science–technology–society interactions. The limited content of certain conceptions and a certain lack of knowledge on the part of the students concerning the processes and the epistemology of science highlight the need to pay explicit attention in science classes to the nature of scientific activity. Some of the ideas brought up by the students clearly show the influence of stereotypes and catastrophic scenarios depicted in films, television programs, and books, revealing media’s limitations when divulging scientific and technological themes to the general public and stressing the need for the school to promote a critical debate about science and technology images conveyed by the media.     

Scaffolding 5-year-old children in Japanese kindergarten collaboratively retelling a tale

This study reports an analysis of how children in a Japanese kindergarten are scaffolded when facing the challenge of collaboratively retelling a kitsune story they have been told. What is referred to as a kitsune story is an example of a trickster tale with foxes as anthropomorphised animals. The participants were ten 5-year-old children and their teacher. Told a story by their teacher, the children were asked later to collaboratively retell it. How this retelling activity is supported – theorised in terms of the metaphor of scaffolding – is analysed on the basis of recordings. The findings show the nature of this evolving process. The conclusion is that the metaphor of scaffolding may require some contextual specification to remain a functional conceptual – and in extension, pedagogical – tool in activities fundamentally different from the activity studied in Wood, Bruner and Ross’ founding 1976 study.     

情感隐喻在大学英语词汇教学中的应用

英语中大量存在以隐喻形式存在的情感表达,而情感表达是大学英语教学中的难点。对大学英语课本中出现的大量情感隐喻表达进行认知语言学分析,探索其工作机制,将隐喻引入大学英语的词汇教学中,有助于学生掌握隐喻类词汇。