ABSTRACT

The metaphors used by teachers to explain the nature of student learning and student difficulty can reveal a great deal about how teachers conceive the teaching and learning process. This is an important area of research as it can shed light on how they see their role in the learning process and how they should intervene to assist students in difficulty. Drawing on conceptual metaphorical theory, this paper explores how high school teachers described student learning by examining the metaphors they drew on to talk about student learning. The research found that the teachers drew primarily on metaphors associated with a journey when describing student learning. The paper argues that the employment of such metaphors can limit teachers’ responses to situations where students experience challenge and difficulty. It is further argued that teachers need to reflect on the use of such metaphors (and the accompanying essentialist language) and consider the affordances offered by employing alternative metaphors to describe student learning.

摘要

教师用来解释学生学习的本质和学生困难的隐喻可以很大程度上揭示教师如何构思教学和学习过程。这是一个重要的研究领域，因为它可以揭示他们如何看待自己在学习过程中的角色以及他们应该如何干预以帮助有困难的学生。本文借鉴概念隐喻理论，通过研究高中教师用来谈论学生学习的隐喻，探讨了他们如何描述学生的学习。研究发现，教师在描述学生学习时主要使用与旅程相关的隐喻。该论文认为，使用此类隐喻可能会限制教师对学生遇到挑战和困难的情况的反应。