Metaphors We Teach By: How Metaphors Shape What We Do in Classrooms
Ebook
Metaphors We Teach By helps teachers reflect on how the metaphors they use to think about education shape what happens in their classrooms and in their schools. Teaching and learning will differ in classrooms whose teachers think of students as plants to be nurtured from those who consider them as clay to be molded. Students will be assessed differently if teachers think of assessment as a blessing and as justice instead of as measurement. This volume examines dozens of such metaphors related to teaching and teachers, learning and learners, curriculum, assessment, gender, and matters of spirituality and faith. The book challenges teachers to embrace metaphors that fit their worldview and will improve teaching and learning in their classrooms.
"As a maven of metaphors myself, I am delighted with
Metaphors We Teach By, which examines how metaphor informs
and enhances the teaching life. Moving beyond the traditional 'sage
on the stage and the guide by the side' formulation, the
contributors to this volume concoct a rich stew of personal
accounts, scholarly expertise, and metaphors ranging from oysters
to gardens, superheroes to invisible thread."
--Susan VanZanten, Seattle Pacific University
"Metaphors powerfully communicate how we view our roles, our work,
and its ultimate purposes. This valuable book carefully examines
the process through which we select these symbols in order to
understand their influence and set the course of practice for the
next generation of learners."
--Jillian N. Lederhouse, Wheaton College
"Metaphors make our thoughts more lucid, connected, and
multifaceted, structure our perceptions and understandings about
life, and help us see things in new light. Thinking metaphorically
about education and learning also enhances creativity. Badley and
Van Brummelen have provided a rich resource, which will no doubt
improve both teaching and learning for educators and students
alike."
--James Drexler, Covenant College
"Kudos to Badley and Van Brummelen for this practical collection of
meditations on metaphor in the classroom . . . If metaphors operate
at a fundamental level of cognition, then the challenge is to
intentionally choose which metaphors I employ as an educator, since
they will both direct my behavior and lead to new
perspectives."
--Deborah C. Bowen, Redeemer University College
"Metaphors have long been recognized as playing a key role in the
ways we approach teaching and learning. The authors contributing to
this book offer a thought-provoking, faith-sensitive, and a
refreshingly personal guide to this important area of
reflection."
--David I. Smith, Calvin College
"Too often as teachers we worry about the words we are using and
forget to pay attention to what we are actually saying to our
pupils through our practice. In this innovative book Ken Badley and
Harro Van Brummelen have brought together essays which help us to
distinguish these. By focusing on the metaphors that shape our
work, they have provided a resource that will have a significant
impact on our classrooms.
--Trevor Cooling, Canterbury Christ Church University, UK
Product Details
- Title : Metaphors We Teach By: How Metaphors Shape What We Do in Classrooms
- Authors:
- Badley, Ken
- Van Brummelen, Harro Walter
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Publication Date: 2012
- ISBN: 9781621893530
Ken Badley is Professor of Education and teaches in the doctoral
program in education at George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon.
He is the author of several social studies and religious studies
textbooks.
Harro Van Brummelen is Executive Director of Christian Studies
International and Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School
of Education at Trinity Western University in Langley, British
Columbia