Thinking About Analogies: jump into the discussion :)

Gordon (1961) wrote "Good teaching traditionally makes ingenious use of analogies and metaphors to help students visualize content."

Ok... It means that we had not learned anything unless we could express it in the form of an analogy!! Gordon's quote has filled my head with buzzing thoughts about how to rework my French Revolution unit with Year 8.

Since critical literacy is an important part of student learning, using analogy is a stimulus to engage in the critical process.

Marzano (2001) wrote that "like metaphors, analogies help us see how seemingly dissimilar things are similar, increasing our understanding of new information."

Identifying similarities and differences can play out in many ways in the classroom. It is the role of the teacher to engage students in tasks that involve comparisons, classifications, metaphors, and analogies.

I use analogy all the time in my classroom but usually as an "off the cuff" thing when it was clear that one of my adolescent student did not understand something.

I want to teach analogy and metaphor very well to students because if the analogy is too readily apparent, then it is unlikely to promote disruptive thinking!

As every teacher knows, "nothing is more fruitful than these obscure analogies, these indistinct reflections of one theory into another, these furtive caresses, these inexplicable disagreements; also nothing gives the researcher greater pleasure"...

Teachers must understand the analogies themselves and know how to use them effectively and also know which analogies are appropriate and which are not when it comes to their use! Teacher knowledge is crucial here (Bharath Sriraman). I therefore would argue that teachers should be very careful about using analogies in their teaching.

Analogies are indeed useful because they illustrate a specific point in order to develop understanding of a principle. Religious leaders teach in parables and sometimes they are by nature manipulative.

It is the responsibility of teachers to challenge their students to truly look at analogies and the world through a critical lens.