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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 13, Issue 1, Article 5 (Jun., 2012) |
Conclusions and Recommendations
As a result of the examination, it was found that analogies are often used in physics textbooks. It is seen that these analogies are used more for abstract target concepts (Table 1). Abstract concepts, in which analogies are used most frequently, include the physics concepts that are difficult for students to understand. One of the important functions of analogies is to make the concepts that are difficult to understand comprehensible. In this regard, most of the analogies used in physics textbooks are very reasonable in terms of the content of the target concept. It is seen that analogies can be configured as a functional analogy, verbal analogy, concrete-abstract analogy, embedded activator type analogy or simple analogy.
Figure 2 may cause a lot of misconceptions. It shouldn’t be used like that. Moreover, sufficient explanations on the analogy and issue should be certainly provided in order to prevent misunderstandings and misconceptions.The following suggestions may be offered to students to provide them with better benefits from analogy-based learning in physics textbooks: enriched or expanded and advance organiser analogies in books can be highlighted more. Overlapping features in generated analogies between the analogue and target can also be presented to the attention of students. The analogies generated should be presented in a systematic manner with the limitations clearly described if they are to be effective educational tools. The presentation method mediates the effectiveness of analogies as well. When analogies provide a greater conceptual understanding and are taught in a systematic way, there is less risk of misinterpretation. One way to achieve this is to use educational models. A number of educational models have been detailed in the literature including the FAR book (Harrison, 1995) and Instructional Model in Analogies (Glynn, 1991).
