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On Teaching Metaphor

Posted on:2014-03-10Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:W GaoFull Text:PDF
GTID:1107330467964552Subject:Curriculum and pedagogy
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Metaphor is a basic way of human cognition. It not only permeates in everyday language, but also widely exists in human culture, such as religion, philosophy, science, art, etc. In Metaphor Ⅱ:A Classified Bibliography of Publications1985-1990, the western scholar Noppen and others had listed more than70disciplines which study metaphor. Contemporary multidisciplinary studies of metaphor can be viewed as a revolution in the deep cultural structure. As an important way of human cognitive and cultural construction, metaphor is inevitably connected with teaching. However, in Chinese pedagogic research, metaphor is still a widely neglected educational category.Teaching metaphor refers to all the linguistic and cognitive phenomena that adopt other things to cognize, comprehend and express issues related to teaching thought and practice. From a macro point of view, the living environment of teaching metaphor can be divided into two main areas:teaching thought and teaching practice.In the field of teaching thought, teaching metaphor is not only the characterization of teachers’ personal theory, but also a booster for the development of public teaching theory. As experimental and individual knowledge, teachers’personal theory is characterized by unique forms with metaphor being one of the basic ones. The metaphors created and used by teachers are a reflection of their teaching beliefs and knowledge about curriculum, teaching and themselves. The teaching metaphors applied in different developmental stages reflect the differences of the teachers’ teaching experience, knowledge, and pursuit.Accompanied by the pursuit of scientific teaching theory, modern and contemporary teaching researchers are paying increasing attention to logic and empirical studies, and metaphor has been almost neglected. In fact, there are a great number of metaphors in teaching theory. These metaphors essentially promote the development of teaching theory. We can even say that the developmental history of teaching theory is a history with constantly surpassing teaching metaphors. Teaching metaphors play an important role in the assumption, construction, and expression of teaching theory. The ancient Confucian educational thought discoursed by water and the biological metaphors in the western modern and contemporary teaching theory clearly reflected the functions of teaching metaphors in the development of teaching theory.Teaching metaphor can respond to the tacitness of teachers’personal theory and the externality of the teaching theory knowledge communicated in the traditional teacher education curriculum. As the characterization of teachers’personal theory, teaching metaphor can promote the explicitness of teachers’tacit knowledge, and thus help awaken their self-consciousness and even expand and transform their personal theories. As the entia of affection and cognition, teaching metaphor plays an inspirational, instructive and persuasive role in the transmission of teaching theory. To sort, highlight and discuss teaching metaphors in teaching theory, not only deeply impresses the audience, but also makes them better understand the nature and history of teaching theory as well as the driving forces behind its development. Therefore, combining the transmission of teaching theory and teachers’reflections of their personal theory by means of teaching metaphor, and promoting the "dialog" between public teaching theory and teachers’personal theory can help the teachers recognize the complexity of teaching, and form a habit of reflection.In the field of teaching practice, teaching metaphor is of great value to students’ psychological development. In terms of cognition, it can attract attention, improve memory, promote understanding, and stimulate imagination and creativity; in terms of affection, it is in favor of students’affective expression. At the same time, cognitive activities involving metaphors are often accompanied by affection, which is beneficial for stimulating students’learning interest and motivation, and thereby facilitating cognition and moral cultivation. However, in current primary and middle school education, metaphor is often solely treated as a teaching method to promote students’ understanding of knowledge. Meanwhile, the tendency of utilitarianism and scientism widespread in teaching practice even depresses children’s metaphorical thinking and constrains the development of their imagination and creativity.In order to free the potential value of teaching metaphor, the present teaching practice can obtain much enlightenment from ancient and modern educationists’ metaphorical wisdom, such as Confucius’and Mencius’analogy created through things around, Chuang Tzu’s analogy created through distant things, Zen’s analogy created in situations and Confucian thought of explaining clearly with few analogies, obeying rite and morality, and Chuang Tzu’s thought of criticizing flashy analogies. Today, these thoughts and practices are still shining with the light of wisdom. As modern educationists, Sukhomlinskii’s and Li Jilin’s practices also have wider referential significance, including teachers paying attention to stimulating children’s metaphorical thinking in situations, guiding their thinking and developing their metaphorical competence in creation.Based on educationists’ metaphorical wisdom, we can respectively focus on curriculum, teachers, and students to construct a basic applied framework of teaching metaphor. First of all, as the cultural essence, school curriculum contains abundant metaphors. These metaphors have positive significance in stimulating students’ learning interest, promoting students’understanding of learning content, penetrating moral cultivation, and communicating science and humanity. Secondly, teachers’ wisdom of teaching metaphor is very essential. To improve the effect of teaching metaphor, teachers need to focus on the similarities between "source domain" and "target domain", students’relevant knowledge and experience, as well as novelty and virtue of metaphor. Finally, improving students’metaphorical competence is the objective of applying teaching metaphor. Combining with specific curriculum and teaching, teachers can help develop students’metaphorical competence from three aspects, i.e. discrimination, understanding, and creation.
Keywords/Search Tags:teaching metaphor, teaching thought, teaching practice, cognition, affection, metaphorical competence
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