Nordina: Nordic Studies in Science Education (Mar 2015)

Metaforer och analogier inom termodynamik i kemiläroböcker för gymnasiet<br>Metaphors and analogies in thermodynamics in upper secondary chemistry textbooks

  • David Hedberg,
  • Jesper Haglund,
  • Fredrik Jeppsson

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5617/nordina.900
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1

Abstract

Read online

Science education research has long taken an interest in how we may make full use of analogies and metaphors in science teaching. Further, more recently, the role of implicit, conceptual metaphors in connecting abstract conceptual knowledge to concrete embodied experiences has been recognised. The textbook plays a central role in upper secondary teaching, as it is, together with the teacher, a source of knowledge for the students. We have analysed the use of analogies, and explicit and implicit metaphors in two Swedish upper secondary chemistry textbook, and interviewed two of the authors of the textbooks. Abstract states and processes were found to be construed by means of the Object-Event and Location-Event Structure metaphors. Explicit metaphors and analogies were presented, but the comparisons were not always elaborated sufficiently in order to guide the students’ interpretations and avoid possible misunderstandings.

Keywords