New Perspectives in Science Education

Extensive research on science education has evidenced the effectiveness of analogies as a didactic device that, as argued in this conference paper, can facilitate the learning process of abstract concepts when the analogies are appropriately and effectively used. The paper summarises research on such a use of analogies but switches attention to student self-generated analogies, as opposed to analogies generated by education researchers, teachers, or science text-book authors that the literature has largely focused on. It discusses the heuristic use and efficacy of student-generated analogies as a tool in approaching and correctly understanding what is new and unknown. Such use of analogies derives from research with a wide age range of students, who, when asked to make predictions in situations never considered before and to then provide explanations about these predictions, self-generated analogies. As it was found in their explanations, it was by reasoning on the basis of these self-generated analogies that they approached the situations they were presented with and made a scientifically compatible prediction for. This heuristic use of student self-generated analogies can be used in revealing a scientifically compatible way of reasoning on the basis of student self-generated analogies which can be also productively used in the process of science teaching.

Keywords Analogical reasoning, self-generated analogies, Analogies, Science Education

References:

1] Mozzer, N. B., & Justi, R. “Students' pre-and post-teaching analogical reasoning when they draw their analogies”, International Journal of Science Education, 34(3), 2012, 429-458.

[2] Goswami, U. “Analogical reasoning: What develops? A review of research and theory”, Child Development, 1992, 62(1), 1-22.

[3] Fotou, N., & Abrahams, I. “Students’ reasoning in making predictions about novel situations: the role of self-generated analogies”, Insights from Research in Science Teaching and Learning, N Papadouris et al. (Eds), Berlin, Springer, 2016, 123-138

[4] Fotou, N., & Abrahams, I. "From the known to the unknown: The role of spontaneous and self-generated analogies in students’ predictions about novel situations.", Research in Science & Technological Education, 2021, 1-15.