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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 16, Issue 1, Article 7 (Jun., 2015) |
A study on analogies used in new ninth grade biology textbook
Musa DIKMENLI
Necmettin Erbakan University, Ahmet Kelesoglu Faculty of Education, Department of Biology Education, Konya, TURKEY
E-mail: mdikmenli@konya.edu.tr
Received 6 Mar., 2015
Revised 11 Jun., 2015
Analogies have many advantages for students such as concretizing abstract concepts and enabling motivation. Analogies are frequently used in textbooks. Research shows that the analogies in textbooks are not used based on certain directives and sometimes lead to misconceptions for students. Therefore, analysing the analogies in textbooks on several dimensions will contribute to students and teachers. The purpose of this study is to analyse the types of analogies that are used in new ninth grade biology textbooks and examine how these analogies are structured and presented. The examined textbook is used in the entire Turkey upon the approval of the Ministry of National Education. As a result of the analysis made based on the document examination technique, it was determined that analogies are more frequently used in the new biology textbook when compared to previous biology textbooks. It was also determined that analogies were structured in the functional, verbal, concrete-abstract, simple, and embedded activator types. It was also seen that the analogue explanation was insufficient and the limitations of the analogies were not specified as required.
Keywords: Analogy; Biology textbook; Biology education.
