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| ISBN-13: | 9781466946798 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Trafford Publishing |
| Publication date: | 07/23/2012 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 2 MB |
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"AHA!" TEACHING BY ANALOGY
By TED BAILEY
Trafford Publishing
Copyright © 2012 Dr Ted BaileyAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4669-4680-4
CHAPTER 1
ANALOGY'S COUSINS
Like us all, analogy has some close cousins. These analogical cousins are called metaphor and simile. They are all tools of language that are virtually the same but are also distinctly different. That is not as absurd or confusing as it sounds. They function in a similar way by enabling us to manipulate and compare unlike ideas and situations but they differ in emphasis. That is the contradictory nature of language.
The whole idea of language, which we use automatically and equally take for granted, is an elastic one because it can be pulled and stretched in any chosen direction at our command. It is just as well, because it is the vehicle through which we express our complex inner thoughts and feelings to the outside world of reality. The most creative and effective means of expression is the metaphorical.
Many people think that all language is metaphorical since it is not a physically real object, such as a rock. Without delving into any theory here, it is worth noting that the 19th century American author Ralph Emerson thought metaphor was "the fertile soil from which language is born." Emerson's metaphor is very apposite in defining metaphor, not as a mere poetic implement, but as the very basis of all language.
The metaphorical principle is important in teaching and it needs some definition before we can specifically examine analogy.
What is a metaphor?
Metaphor is our expressive springboard, itself a metaphor. Why? It is metaphorical because it both describes and also is a 'leap' from one place to another very different one: language to springboard. In this case, the whole notion of leaping is metaphorical because a verbal expression cannot actually jump in the real world, yet we can easily visualize it.
By merging two dissimilar ideas or images into a single one, metaphor acts as a meaning gearshift (another implied metaphor!) by stretching the boundaries of literal experience. It does so in an elegant way and produces an altered or new meaning to the subject by creating a vivid image or picture in our minds. This shift of meaning is often implied, for example: 'steely gaze', 'hot temper' or stated more explicitly as in 'it's not my cup of tea' and so on. Metaphors help us relate the ideas in our head to the real world through economical and graphic choice of language. We think much faster than we can talk, so metaphors quickly pack ideas together into one 'chunk', as it were.
When we are thinking of an abstract concept, such as the color 'red', we tend to reframe it in terms of something more tangible from the real world, for example, apple, as in 'red as an apple'. Now we know for sure not all apples are actually red, some being very green, but the tangible object helps us to conceptualize the idea of the color red. Mind you, if you were a fine art student you may see it another way.
There are too many different types of metaphor to distract our attention here, but the main problem is that they become overused and ridiculously mixed up to the point where they become literally defunct as worn out clichés. Consider this one, regularly overused by sports commentators: "He stepped up to the plate and grasped the nettle!" Obviously this could be arranged in reality but it is basically nonsense. However all sports fans somehow grasp the point.
Whatever their type, be they figures of speech, vivid images or compact summaries of complexity, metaphors have immense power to increase the receptivity to new ideas, and therefore they are crucial in creative thought. Iconic metaphors are endemic in advertising, political cartoons, drawings and pictures. At one time, the French perfume Chanel No. 5 was advertised not as just a perfume but as a visual metaphor of a whole sophisticated 'lifestyle'. In other words, the picture was the story.
What is the main difference between metaphor and simile?
The general difference between metaphor and simile is that the former transfers meaning between two dissimilar realms by implicitly equating them, for example: 'love is a journey' whereas the latter also does this but acknowledges the differences between them, as in: 'love is like a journey'. The word 'like' is one of the marks of the simile comparison.
Simile is both like and unlike its cousin metaphor. Like metaphor, simile creates a resemblance between unlike items. That is where they part company. In contrast to metaphor, simile usually makes an explicit and precise connection between the unlike items, which highlights one aspect and thus maintains a distinction between them. This is acknowledged on the surface by using the words: 'as' or 'like' for example: 'big as a bus' or 'a good book is like a satisfying meal'. They are both obvious comparisons, but size is obvious in the first one, whereas nourishment is not explicitly mentioned in the second, but is assumed.
Similes are closer to the real world around us than most metaphors and that is why they are inherent in everyday conversation. In many ways one could regard the common similes we use as junior or quasi-metaphors. A way to sum up the difference is this: similes keep things distinct despite their similarity while metaphors equate things despite their difference. Certainly, most of our thinking and speaking is in similes and metaphors because we frame new experiences in the terms of previous ones.
Where does analogy fit in here?
Analogy is the tool that pushes metaphor and simile further along the comparative road. It can be an extended simile by making a comparison more elaborate and also arguing on from that. Equally, it can lurk below the more obvious simile and infer something more than is being acknowledged. In that respect it may look like a simile but may really be an analogy in disguise. It is this inferential potential in creating thought and assisting explanation that makes analogy a necessary addition in teaching.
Taking one of the above examples, analogy might explain the love journey by saying: 'Love is just like a journey because the relationship develops into something beyond the initial feeling and the couple travel together along the same road pursuing the same interests'. This has taken the passing idea, immediately suggested by a metaphor or simile, and extended it by explanation, thus making it more explicitly fastened in our mind. There are many examples of this technique that follow in the applied analogies section.
Common toolbox: different tools
Using an obvious metaphor to sum up so far, analogy, metaphor and simile are tools with different uses that belong in the same toolbox. They overlap and shade into one another, yet remain independent. Applying them enables us to turn ideas around mentally and linguistically as if they were the real thing. It is this 'as if' or 'turning' quality which is the key to the whole process. Metaphor and simile achieve this in different ways, but follow the same principles.
To reiterate, we can highlight the difference in emphasis by using two examples that associate racism with cancer. Using metaphor, we say: 'Racism is a cancer in society' and with simile, we say: 'Racism is like a cancer in society'. The metaphor renames one concept in the terms of the other whereas the simile explicitly compares them. The metaphor hides the transfer, but we still understand the point.
Analogy expresses the relationship explicitly by saying: 'We can see racism in our society as being rather like a cancer because racism threatens the survival of society while cancer threatens the survival of the body.' Note how the analogy takes the similarity between the two ideas from dissimilar fields (body and society) and makes the connection clear by explaining what is meant by the implicit metaphor and the passing likeness in the simile. Of course, if a comparative leap is far too implicit or unrecognizable from someone's experience it can cause confusion instead.
The analogy does not replace the initial metaphor because it is an incomplete form but it translates and expands upon the metaphor through description and analysis. In that way it is the tool of metaphor. It says 'This is what's actually meant', and 'what's going on here' even though it may look odd or even ridiculous. So the metaphor is the whole leap, while the analogy is the logical aspect that may accompany it (part of the word analogy itself says this: the suffix "logy" means science or discussion.) Sometimes it can be difficult to spot the difference between the two. This is because the example chosen may be interwoven with a much bigger idea. In such a case it will be both metaphorical and analogical.
These three tools of language help us make sense of our messy world by allowing us to juggle ideas in unusual ways and, as a result, move on to a better understanding of difficult or unknown ideas. So, in summary metaphor is implicit, simile explicit and analogy explanatory. Therefore, it is analogy that eventually has the lasting potential to teach anything abstract or new because it provides explicit explanatory structure to any initial metaphorical idea or image.
Analogical teaching
In teaching and training contexts, analogies refer to and apply relevant prior knowledge and experience to introduce difficult or new target concepts. Unlike a metaphor, an analogy directly helps the learner because it consciously displays both the use of the learner's experience and also the comparative process which achieves this. It therefore simplifies the target in terms that the learner already understands and, if well applied, can make the connection to that target quicker. Metaphors morph into analogies when clarification is needed.
So analogies are like handy all-purpose tools in the metaphor tool kit in that they address complex notions more specifically. To push that analogy further, it is as if it were a multi-headed wrench: the flexible head, with its many different sized attachments, enables the mechanic to pick and choose which is most suitable for the required task. This flexible analogical wrench temporarily turns difficult ideas into simpler ones immediately reframing them in a comprehensible and memorable way. Some of the examples that follow in the teaching section only infer this shift from metaphorical idea or image to analogy. Nevertheless I treat them as analogies because of their specific use in situ.
Whether improvised or deliberate, analogies are launching pads from which to direct, discuss, create, or mount detailed arguments. When describing this process, we say: 'by analogy', 'drawing an analogy' or 'formed by analogy' and so on. These phrases show how open and ostensible the comparison being made is to both parties in the situation.
It is important to reiterate that analogy does not necessarily produce learning but, when appropriately chosen, acts as a powerful catalyst in the process. It is the trigger for learning both immediately and in the future. This kind of learning is all about being aware of and making relationships between ideas and objects. It helps the student to briefly look sideways: a sort of mental peripheral vision to broaden the more usual sequence. Therefore, it integrates rather than compartmentalizes knowledge. This relational learning is well summarized by John D Casnig (1997-2012): "Metaphors remind us that the universe is full of cousins." Indeed.
CHAPTER 2CHANGING FAMILIAR IDEAS INTO NEW CONCEPTS
Art for Analogy's Sake
In my earliest days of teaching Further Education Sociology, as a frustrated schoolboy artist I found it easier to convey key abstract concepts using roughly sketched diagrams and images. I found this pictorial technique helped the students visualize things immediately in their own terms by allowing them to grasp the overall gist of the concept. These images acted as powerful 'primers' for the later work and their impact carried over into more detailed verbal explanations. Some were also simultaneously analogical in essence, so presented a 'double whammy' opportunity from the very start. As visuals they served to both alert students to what followed and to call upon the student's prior experiences.
This analogical primer technique applies to any teaching environment, so examples from one subject can be adapted and translated into another. This is discussed in more detail in Part 2. As mentioned in the Preface, here are three of my spontaneous analogical images presented to help students understand prerequisite sociological concepts:
1) Dividing up tasks
In this example, the linked concepts of 'division of labor', 'mechanization' and 'automation' are being introduced to a new young sociology group. Division of labor is the fundamental one of the three because it has both a technical and social meaning. In its technical sense it refers to the increasing specialization between the various work tasks that occurs in any form of production. However, it also refers to the increasing social differentiation between those involved in that production process: managers and workers, for instance. As industrialization began to take hold in the 19th century, machines increasingly replaced purely manual labor. This increasing mechanization inevitably turned into automation, something accelerated by computers.
Now, faced with translating these interrelated concepts from their somewhat abstract nature in the larger society to meaningful everyday experience is not as easy as it might appear. The available books tend to explain this in a sequential way and often very dryly. So how can we best achieve this in a way that will make a simple connection with the student's everyday experience and have it remain in their memory for later recall?
At this point, I decided that a quick drawing would introduce a light-hearted atmosphere to aid the student's focus on the concepts. A visual analogy flashed into my mind, triggered by a 1962 novelty pop song about a hole in the ground. On the board, I quickly drew a very rough sketch (below).
A hole in the road:
The hole represents the production process. It involves a simple division of labor, in the technical sense, with six stick-people digging a hole. I ask the students: "What's the best way to organize this job?"
The students discuss the task at hand and then divide up the labor: 2 dig the hole, 1 clears away and 1 supervises. This leaves 2 with nothing to do, so they go off to a café. They are spare and obviously not needed, so are redundant and eventually lose their jobs. Later, the boss buys a mechanical digger. This only requires a supervisor and operator. Now 2 more workers are unnecessary and are laid off. Mechanization has overtaken the job and has immediate economic and social consequences. Mechanization leads to automation and consequently unemployment as a result of improved technology.
The first time I resorted to this, I learned something useful: that simple and imaginative use of shared experience can make difficult abstract concepts easier to understand. I believe this was the first time I created an analogy to accompany a drawing in this way. From then on visually-based analogies were applied at every opportunity.
Now this is not exactly world shattering but because of the way it is delivered—visually—it does make an immediate impact via the student's common sense. This everyday example readies them for the bigger concepts in society and for the final exam. In other words, they move inductively from a hole in the road to the way work is organized in society as a whole to the way work affects social relationships. In the end, they learn something seriously sociological in a relaxed yet stimulating way.
It became a straightforward process. Produce a simple picture from everyday experience, analogize it with the target concepts, outline the similarities between the analogy and the concept while remembering to point out it is only an analogy. The sketch can be drawn on the board initially to introduce the analogy and followed up with a more elaborate Power Point.
A visual analogy immediately opens up the target concept in an accessible way, in this case by showing how tasks can be divided. It also locks students into the underlying principle of increasing technological efficiency and progress in our contemporary society. Further, with imagination, one analogy may well develop into another, either addressing a similar concept or, in this case, the same division of labor but in a more complex fashion, as shown.
2) Dividing up occupations
All analogies involve a stretch of the imagination. Here, the division of labor is compared to bees buzzing around in a hive, each having precise tasks in the rigid hexagonal honeycomb. The hexagonal structure is adapted to make a visual analogy about a more complex human division of labor within the overall economy by showing its differentiated occupational infrastructure:
Divisible hexagons:
Each hexagon represents an interrelated aspect of the total structure and is shown in relation to the others. A social economy is divisible by major occupations, themselves divided up into smaller groups and jobs, within which there are smaller tasks and so on; this is represented here by hexagons of decreasing size. It is unnecessary to push this image any further because the point is immediately made and can be checked by question and answer.
How does this work? The visual is the primer, which gains attention and alerts the students to the analogy between a beehive and human society, thus embedding the greater concept into their minds from the outset. Explanation of the image and discussion that follow allow for the understanding that the different hexagons represent different levels in the whole structure: going from the outside, the largest equals the societal division of labor; the next its major occupational divisions; the one after is the specialized jobs within occupations, while the smallest represents tasks within jobs and so on.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from "AHA!" TEACHING BY ANALOGY by TED BAILEY. Copyright © 2012 Dr Ted Bailey. Excerpted by permission of Trafford Publishing.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Acknowledgements, vii,Preface, ix,
PART ONE INTRODUCTION Analogies,
1. Analogy's Cousins, 5,
2. Changing Familiar Ideas Into New Concepts, 12,
3. Analogies Arranged Alphabetically, 25,
4. Reasons To Be Analogical, 105,
PART TWO INTRODUCTION A Bit of Theory,
5. Rationale For Analogical Teaching, 111,
6. Introducing Analogical Teaching, 122,
7. Inductive Analogy Teaching, 125,
8. Deductive Analogy Teaching, 132,
9. The Analogical Primer, 135,
10. Analogy Training Models, 140,
Postscript, 147,
References, 151,