Analogies in Science Education

Abstract

Scientific literacy as a goal of education for sustainable development focuses attention to development of learning, inquiry, and “transfer” skills to enable young people to be able to use the aquired knowledge an skills in everyday and professional activities. This means that student must apply knowledge and skills from some to the new situation, from one area to another, not directly, but generalised, seeing similarity or analogy between them. Analogical reasoning is a central cognitive ability that is used in our everyday lives, in research, teaching and learning.

The study analized usage of analogies in physics textbooks for Basic and High School in Latvia. Seven physics textbooks are examined by using the descriptive analysis method. The usage of analogies were analysed to discuss on their effectiveness for a deeper acquisition of science concepts and phenomena, for developing students’ reasoning, meaning making, and transfer skills during teaching physics.