Conceptual metaphor and embodied cognition in science learning

Tamer Amin is Associate Professor and Director of the Science and Mathematics Education Center in the Department of Education at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. His research focuses on the development of scientific understanding and reasoning, with a particular emphasis on how language relates to this process. He is currently co-editing (with Olivia Levrini) a forthcoming Routledge publication entitled Converging Perspectives on Conceptual Change: Mapping an Emerging Paradigm in the Learning Sciences. Fredrik Jeppsson is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social and Welfare Studies at Linköping University, Sweden. His research focuses on the teaching and learning of thermal science at different age levels. He has an interest in embodied cognition and, in particular, how metaphorical language can support students’ learning. He currently studies how primary students’ meaning-making of science content can be promoted by mediation through different semiotic modes (e.g. verbal language, body language, images, or models). Jesper Haglund is a Postdoctoral Researcher and Docent in Physics with Specialization in Physics Education at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Sweden. His research focuses on the teaching and learning of thermal science at different age levels. He has a particular interest in embodied cognition and how analogies and metaphors can support students’ learning. Recently, his study has focused on how infrared cameras can be used in open-ended laboratory activities.

• Introduction: Conceptual Metaphor and Embodied Cognition in Science Learning 1. The Importance of Language in Students’ Reasoning About Heat in Thermodynamic Processes 2. Varying Use of Conceptual Metaphors across Levels of Expertise in Thermodynamics 3. On Conceptual Metaphor and the Flora and Fauna of Mind: Commentary on Brookes and Etkina; and Jeppsson, Haglund and Amin 4. Applying Conceptual Blending to Model Coordinated Use of Multiple Ontological Metaphors 5. Enacting Conceptual Metaphor through Blending: Learning activities embodying the substance metaphor for energy 6. Some Challenges in the Empirical Investigation of Conceptual Mappings and Embodied Cognition in Science Education: Commentary on Dreyfus, Gupta and Redish; and Close and Scherr 7. An Analysis of Metaphors Used by Students to Describe Energy in an Interdisciplinary General Science Course 8. Understanding Starts in the Mesocosm: Conceptual metaphor as a framework for external representations in science teaching 9. From Stories to Scientific Models and Back: Narrative framing in modern macroscopic physics 10. On the Significance of Conceptual Metaphors in Teaching and Learning Science: Commentary on Lancor; Niebert and Gropengiesser; and Fuchs 11. Conceptual Metaphor and the Study of Conceptual Change: Research synthesis and future directions