A study on analogies used in new ninth grade biology textbook

Textbooks are important teaching materials that serve as a source for student learning in order to realize the purpose of teaching. Traditionally, textbooks are prepared for the purpose of enabling students to learn information regarding the topics of a lesson in an ordered and systematic way by themselves. Biology textbooks are prepared in line with effective planning and if used they can become effective teaching material in biology classes. As technology and information communication is rapidly developing today, educators have always taken textbooks into account as a good source of information for students. High school textbooks are one of the effective teaching materials that are frequently used in the process of teaching in education. Students and teachers highly believe in and rely on textbooks (Chiappetta, Ganesh, Lee and Phillips, 2006). The textbooks that are used by students and teachers need to be analysed at several dimensions so that education can achieve its purpose and students can make use of textbooks in the correct way. Analogies are one of the topics to be analysed in biology textbooks.

Biology textbooks and lessons handle a great number of concepts from processes at the molecular level such as DNA replication to ecosystems, which cover thousands of biotic and nonliving variables. Students are not directly able to visualize these concepts in the classroom environment but they can visualize them in their minds by creating models (Mclachlan, 2003). Analogies act as starting models for introducing science concepts. Analogies are one of the effective teaching tools that can be used in such cases. Analogies are powerful teaching tools that are commonly used in teaching science because analogies compare a new unfamiliar concept with an old familiar concept and make it comprehensible for students.

Analogy is the explanation of an unfamiliar concept by comparing it with a familiar concept. The unfamiliar concept is the target and the familiar concept is the analogue (Duit, 1991; Glynn, 1991; Dunbar, 2001). Scientists and science educators have used analogies in introducing or explaining many new concepts. Analogies compare the attributes of current conceptual knowledge in the student’s mind and the knowledge to be acquired, and thus facilitate the comprehension of new concepts (Venville and Treagust, 1997). Analogies motivate students to engage in the topic and help students gain a new perspective about the topic for meaningful learning (Glynn and Takahashi, 1998; Heywood, 2002). Analogies help overcome misconceptions and play an important role in improving conceptual change (Brown and Clement, 1989; Stavy, 1991; Venville and Treagust, 1996). Analogies help students concretize abstract concepts (Thiele and Treagust, 1994).

Analogies are not always necessary and appropriate tools in teaching and they have some limitations. All analogies are not good analogies and all good analogies are not useful for all students (Orgill and Bodner, 2004). Furthermore, analogies never share all common attributes with the target concept and this can lead the students to misunderstand the target concept. And in some cases, students can be misled when the analogue concept replaces the target concept (Clement, 1993; Duit, Roth, Komorek and Wilbers, 2001; Orgill and Bodner, 2004). Gilbert (1989) reports that the use of analogy in biology lessons can lead to lack of success for students. Therefore, analogies should be distinctively selected and used. For these reasons, analogies should be used only when necessary and in an appropriate manner.

It is quite common to use analogies in biological texts. Glynn and Takahashi (1998) noted that biological texts that are promoted through analogies improved conceptual changes. Paris and Glynn (2004) determined that the analogy texts, in which the relations between the analogue and target concepts are clearly expressed and promoted through images, provided an advantage for pre-service teachers in transferring new knowledge from the familiar to the unfamiliar. The analogies in a textbook can lead to disadvantages if not used appropriately (Duit, 1991; Duit et al., 2001). Analogies never share all common attributes with the target concept. In some cases, analogue concept can replace the target concept and this can cause the students to misunderstand a target concept (Clement, 1993; Duit et al., 2001; Orgill & Bodner, 2004).

Textbooks are an important source of analogies (Parida and Goswami, 2000). The analogies in textbooks are freely used by students and teachers. The analogies in textbooks are usually used randomly and can be insufficient for students (Gilbert, 1989). And this leads to misunderstandings for students most of the time (Thiele and Treagust, 1994). In this regard, some teaching models were developed for the effective use of analogies in teaching science education. Examples include the general model of analogy teaching (Zeitoun, 1984), the Teaching with Analogies (TWA) model (Glynn, 1991), and the Focus-Action-Reflection (FAR) model (Treagust, Harrison and Venville, 1998). The TWA model is the most commonly used among them. The TWA model explains the instructions to be followed by teachers in analogy-based teaching.

Curtis and Reigeluth (1984) developed an analogy classification system for analysis of analogies that are used in science textbooks. Thiele and Treagust (1994), on the other hand, expanded Curtis and Reigeluth’s (1984) analogy classification system, and systematically classified the analogies used in secondary education chemistry textbooks. Thiele, Venville and Treagust (1995) analysed the analogies in secondary education biology textbooks and compared them with chemistry textbooks. Researchers claim that analogies were more frequently used in biology textbooks when compared to chemistry textbooks. Parida and Goswami (2000), analysing the analogies that are used in a science textbook, determined that although there were a great number of analogies in the examined textbook, most of them did not apply teaching with analogies models. Newton (2003) researched the analogies that are used in elementary school science textbooks and compared them with the analogies that are used in secondary education science textbooks. Orgill and Bodner (2006) analysed the analogies in college biochemistry textbooks. Dikmenli (2010) analysed the analogies in biology textbooks that were prepared according to previous secondary education biology curriculum.

Students either read the analogies in the textbooks or hear them through their teachers without filtering them. The analogies in the textbook gain more importance due to the teaching strategies that are traditionally applied in teacher-centred classrooms. Therefore, analysing the analogies that are used in biology textbooks will contribute much to students, teachers, textbook authors, and programmers. Analogies are commonly used within the textbooks. There are researchers that examine the role of instructional analogies within textbooks (Dikmenli, 2010; Paris and Glynn, 2004; Thiele and Treagust, 1994). Also, there were no studies that examined the analogies within the ninth grade biology textbook because this book is new.

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to analyse the types of analogies that are used in the new ninth grade biology textbooks in Turkey and examine how these analogies are structured and presented. Answers were sought for the following questions in line with this purpose.

How often are analogies used in the new ninth grade biology textbook?
What are the types and structures of the analogies used?