Embodiment for Learning: Conceptual Metaphors in Teaching About Genetic Material

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 12
  In Roundtable Session: Science Teaching and Learning: Pedagogy

Abstract

This study explores, using conceptual metaphor theory and analysis, the conceptual metaphors used by two secondary biology teachers teaching about genetic material. Some research has shown that science concepts are based on conceptual metaphors, and that learning science requires embodiment, which can be studied by exploring language in use. Conceptual metaphors are a cognitive linguistic phenomenon that asserts that concepts are created by a unidirectional mapping into an embodied or perceptual conceptual domain (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). Four conceptual metaphors used by two biology teachers teaching about genetic material are analyzed by content analysis based on metaphor analysis. The potential for instructional design based on this kind of research is discussed as well.

Authors

• Ivan Salinas, Universidad de Chile

• Nicole Gonzalez-Carrillo