Externalizing Internal Mental Representations
Over the past two decades, consistent research findings have shown that a variety of external representations used by science teachers, science teacher educators, and science education researchers can lead to successful student learning outcomes. These external representations include analogies, metaphors, and models and model-based learning which have the effect of helping teachers and students externalize their internal mental representations providing avenues for discussion and more focused learning (see for example, Aubusson et al. 2006; Khine and Saleh 2011). This short entry deals with analogies as one form of external representation that is introduced by science teachers and used effectively with both elementary and secondary students when they learn a variety of science concepts.
Need for a Guide to Help Science Teachers Use Analogies Effectively
In science lessons, both teachers and students generate analogies, and sometimes these...
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References
Aubusson PJ, Harrison AG, Ritchie SM (eds) (2006) Metaphor and analogy in science education. Springer, Dordrecht
Harrison AG, Coll RK (eds) (2008) Using analogies in middle and secondary science classrooms. The FAR guide – an interesting way to teach analogies. Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks
Khine MS, Saleh IM (2011) Models and modeling: cognitive tools for scientific enquiry. Springer
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Treagust DF, Harrison AG, Venville GJ (1998) Teaching science effectively with analogies: an approach for pre-service and in-service teacher education. J Sci Teach Educ 9(2):85–101
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Treagust, D. (2015). Analogies: Uses in Teaching. In: Gunstone, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2150-0_185
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