• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
• /
• v.20 no.3
• /
• pp.411-420
• /
• 2000

The purpose of this study was to investigate how many students understood the analogies for physics concepts used in middle school science textbooks, and which types of analogies they understood better than others. We classified the analogies into the following 4 types: verbal and simple analogy, verbal and enriched analogy, pictorial and simple analogy, and pictorial and enriched analogy. For the study, 46 students were sampled from a middle school in Ulsan city in Korea, and a tool for testing their understanding of analogies were developed. The tool is composed of 8 items, and its face validity about contents and difficulty was verified by 5 experts. It was found that in average only about 50% of the students understood the analogies in the middle school science textbooks averagely, and that the students understood pictorial and simple analogies better than the other types of analogies.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.26 no.3
• /
• pp.276-285
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study was to observe five teachers' science classes and analyze the patterns of their analogies. To analyze the data, investigator triangulation was used, and the results were as follows: First, among the patterns of analogy used, expressions of similes and metaphors were utilized by all the teachers; teachers with over ten years' experience used adult's daily phrases, and teachers with under ten years' experience tended to use anthropomorphism. Regarding pictorial analogies, these manifested themselves in the sixth period, while teachers with over ten years' experience drew a simple picture about circulation of water, teachers with under one year's experience made additional materials for their analogy and they put an emphasis on the concept of the circulation itself. Teachers tended to use analogs according to their interests; teachers who majored in science education used pictorial analogies for further study. Second, the patterns emerging from the correspondence of the analogy manifested themselves in all the teachers equally, but they have no relation to the teacher's background. Third, routine analogy and artificial analogy appeared equally in consideration of degree of artificiality among the patterns of the analogies used. Regarding routine analogy, most teachers tended to look for analogs from things and experiences from themselves or their own backgrounds rather than those of the students. Regarding artificial analogies, teachers tended to purposely choose analogs to help students to understand; energetic teachers sometimes failed to choose appropriate analogs because they approached the topic with too much intensity. While a teacher who lacked experience and interest in science used many expressions of analogy, a teacher who felt some degree of constraint rarely used expressions of analogy. Fourth, most of the teachers used analogs familiar to their own experiences but students often found understanding these analogs difficult. Therefore, teachers need to make greater efforts to utilize analogs which are especially familiar to students when they attempt to explain science concepts.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
• /
• v.25 no.2
• /
• pp.149-158
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study was to analyze the analogies used in elementary science textbooks. For this, the analogies were classified into the following criteria : analogy-related contents included in elementary science text-books, types of representation style, and the role of analogy. The results of this study were as follows : the total of analogies was 154 in the 6th and 166 in the 7th curriculum. Most of them were expressed in textbooks and experimental texts. More structural/functional, verbal/pictorial, concrete/concrete, concrete/abstract, simple and enriched analogies were included in the science textbooks of the 7th than those of the 6th. Most of them took the role as an aid to understanding. According to the domain of science content, energy, material, life domains were increased in the 7th than the 6th, with the exception of the earth science domain. The ratio of used analogies in the life domain was higher than the others, and in the material domain it was the lowest. From these results, it can be said that, in order to help students' understanding, further research into the application of analogies is needed.