Multiple metaphors & science learning: New article, new illustrations

by | Saturday, March 03, 2018

180-degree rotational ambigram for “metaphor.”

I have been (co)writing a series of articles for iWonder: Rediscovering School Science, a  journal for middle school science teachers, published by the Azim Premji University. (Previous articles in this series can be found here, the most recent article can be found below, and the complete current issue can be found here.

Mashood, K. K., Mehta, R., & Mishra, P. (2018). To see a world: Using multiple metaphors in science educationiWonder. (1) p. 48-52.

Abstract: As educators, we need to know that new learning is constrained and framed by our prior knowledge. Metaphors offer one way to harness this to our advantage. In this article we focus on a strategy of using multiple metaphors to explain complex scientific ideas, grounding our discussion in one specific example — that of teaching about energy.

 One of the pleasures of doing this series has been that I have created the illustrations that go with the articles. In this article I decided to pay homage to one of my favorite artists, the Belgian surrealist Rene Magritte. I created three original illustrations, given below.
 

Fig. 1. The seduction of using single metaphors: using just one representation reduces the complexity of a rich idea. Inspired by Variante de la tristesse by Rene Magritte.

Fig. 2. The six metaphors for energy, inspired by the painting The key to dreams by Rene Magritte. Essentially each of the images in the frames represents a different metaphor for energy, and the words below these images spell “energy” in different Indian languages.

Fig. 3. Multiple metaphors of knowledge in understanding the world, inspired by iconography in Magritte’s painting.

A few randomly selected blog posts…

Demotivational posters

I have been a big fan of Despair.com and its quirky, dark humor. I particularly love the demotivational posters, with their beautiful inspiring photographs coupled with some deeply cynical or depressing message. Today students in my MAET summer program completed a...

Cybernetics or AI? What’s in a Name?

Cybernetics or AI? What’s in a Name?

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet—William Shakespeare We propose that a 2 month, 10 man (sic) study of artificial intelligence be carried out during the summer of 1956 at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New...

Metaphors, Minds, Technology & Learning

Metaphors, Minds, Technology & Learning

Note: The shared blogging experiment with Melissa Warr and Nicole Oster continues. This time we delve into metaphors of the mind, technology and generative AI. The core idea and first draft came from Melissa, to which I contributed a substantial rewrite. The final...

21st Century Competencies, what are they? New article

Back in June 2011 I was in Paris for EduSummIT: Building a Global Community of Policy-Makers, Educators, and Researchers to Move Education into the Digital Age. EduSummIT was organized by UNESCO (along with other partners) and brought together over 120 scholars,...

Wordplay

Wordplay

Just some visual wordplay that I have indulged in, just for the heck of it. Nothing really special, though I am partial to the "Explore, Create, Share" design. That was the motto of the MAET program at MSU that I directed for years.  Innovate 2 on Creativity...

SITE 2011, the fun stuff

I had posted earlier about the paper presentations I was involved with during the recently concluded SITE conference at Nashville. Matt Koehler and I were co-Program Chairs for the conference, and sadly Matt was sick and had to miss the trip. In the photo below the...

Harris, Mishra & Koehler, republished

Back in 2009, Judi Harris, Matt Koehler and I published in a piece in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education. That article has now been included in a book, titled: Considerations on Technology & Teachers: The Best of JRTE, edited by Lynne Schrum, and...

Why don’t students like school… In 30 mins!

One of the challenges faced by all instructors is ensuring that students actually read the textbook. This summer we came up with a innovative assignment to address this issue. The book in question was  Daniel Willingham's Why Don't Students Like School? A cognitive...

Money for nothing, and your clicks for free!

I knew that website developers would go to great lengths to rise in Google rankings. What I didn't know was just how far people were willing to go, till I received this email. Note: I have deleted all the links and names, since that would be giving free publicity to...

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *