Metaphors for learning

Fain, Margaret

doi:10.1016/s0734-3310(02)00066-6

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…In Rizzolatti and Craighero (2004), for example, emotion and action perception are evident in the cognition process (recently demonstrated by the work presented by Aziz-Zadeh and Gamez-Djokic, 2016). If we refer to Margaret (2001), the engagement through emotion was part of the success of the learning process, which is more proof that the becoming metaphor is useful to model learning. If it is useful to model learning, then the action of teaching can be directed to that model of learning and focusing in the pedagogy, as in Harr et al (2014).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

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Instructional Changes Adopted for an Engineering Course: Cluster Analysis on Academic Failure

et al. 2016

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As first year students come from diverse backgrounds, basic skills should be accessible to everyone as soon as possible. Transferring such skills to these students is challenging, especially in highly technical courses. Ensuring that essential knowledge is acquired quickly promotes the student’s self-esteem and may positively influence failure rates. Metaphors can help do this. Metaphors are used to understand the unknown. This paper shows how we made a turn in student learning at the University of Almeria. Our hypothesis assumed that metaphors accelerate the acquisition of basic knowledge so that other skills built on that foundation are easily learned. With these goals in mind, we changed the way we teach by using metaphors and abstract concepts in a computer organization course, a technical course in the first year of an information technology engineering degree. Cluster analysis of the data on collective student performance after this methodological change clearly identified two distinct groups. These two groups perfectly matched the “before and after” scenarios of the use of metaphors. The study was conducted during 11 academic years (2002/2003 to 2012/2013). The 475 observations made during this period illustrate the usefulness of this change in teaching and learning, shifting from a propositional teaching/learning model to a more dynamic model based on metaphors and abstractions. Data covering the whole period showed favorable evolution of student achievement and reduced failure rates, not only in this course, but also in many of the following more advanced courses. The paper is structured in five sections. The first gives an introduction, the second describes the methodology. The third section describes the sample and the study carried out. The fourth section presents the results and, finally, the fifth section discusses the main conclusions.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…They were useful to gain proximity with unrelated concepts. For example, in Margaret (2001) there is a clear example of how to use them to instruct library students. In that paper, authors use the trend outlined in Nibley (1991).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%