Using metaphor enables students to advance their critical reasoning skills in the process of examining their mental models. This activity further develops an ability to articulate - both orally and in writing - a line of reasoning including implicit assumptions and consequences of a specific mental model. From engaging in this activity, students can develop an ecological, relational understanding of course concepts, that is, how they inter-relate.

This activity is appropriate for any instructional situation that calls for advancing and measuring the acquisition of a concept(s) over time.

1. Complete a metaphor frame(s): Ask students to complete a simple metaphor frame using a concept under study. For example, to elicit how students think of their own roles/agency in the environment, use a frame such as: When I think of my role in my local environment, I am a/an ________because _______________________________. A student might, for example, complete this frame saying "When I think of my place in my local environment, I am a cog because I am simply part of large machine. Or a student might complete this frame saying, "When I think of my place in my local environment, I am a stream because I flow through it, picking up some things and leaving others." It is important to elicit the frames first without giving examples and then to examine the emergent metaphors that students use.

2. Present a Prezi or Power Point or some kind of simple introduction showing how metaphors work as conceptual devices. See Powerpoint slides titled "Minding Metaphors, Comm 322" for an introduction I used in a communication course on civil discourse as an example.

3. Respond to/interrogate completed metaphor frames: Ask students to exchange their metaphor frames and respond to each other, e.g. using prompts such as these: What questions does this metaphor raise for you? Why? What seems apt about this metaphor? How so? What seems not quite right about this metaphor? Why? Students can respond anonymously and then return their responses to the metaphor-maker for further response. Instructors can use this kind of response-to-metaphors-in-use activity throughout a course so that students acquire a deeper awareness of how metaphors work in communicating ideas on an implicit level.

4. Use metaphor frames to assess/self-assess learning: At various points in a course (especially at midterm/end-of-term), ask students to review their completed frames and write a reflective narrative/essay identifying what they have learned using their metaphors/revised metaphors frames to explain what they have learned about key course concepts. Students can use these metaphor frames as a way of reviewing/revising their understanding of basic course concepts. As an instructor, use these self-assessments in evaluating students' learning in the course. Instructors can also look for patterns in these students' self-assessments that might warrant re-teaching a concept or offering additional learning activities.

Some special considerations:

a) Understanding Metaphor: Students need some background information in understanding metaphors as a conceptual device so they don't think of metaphor as simply a literary, stylistic device, but rather as a way to make our mental models explicit. This background information need not be extensive, but understanding metaphor as a conceptual mechanism is not they typical way students view metaphors since they have generally experienced them in school only as literary devices. Adapt the Power Point slides titled "Minding Metaphors" for your own context/purpose. Minding Metaphors (PowerPoint 2007 (.pptx) 250kB May30 17)

b)Cultivating an Awareness of Metaphors: Pause over metaphors used in readings or class conversations and talk about what they imply conceptually including their implicit assumptions. Paying attention to metaphors and examining what they reveal reinforces students' growing awareness that they are pervasive and convey meaning. Emphasize how we can not use language without using metaphors, that they are a fundamental feature of all talk, and deserve to be opened up and understood.

c) Making Metaphor-making/Metaphor-response an Ongoing Activity: This activity optimally advances learning when it is used and adapted throughout a course. It is helpful to introduce students to the use of metaphorical frames right at the beginning of a class, follow-up throughout the term, and then invite them to revisit their metaphorical frames at midterm or at the end of a course and ask them to review their frames and comment on what they reveal about they have learned about various concepts. An instructor might also respond informally to these metaphor frames to assist students in questioning/refining their understanding. One of the benefits of metaphors is that they can be heuristics and can reveal faulty assumptions and misconceptions, and can then be revised/reconfigured to deepen learning.

Because metaphors point to how learners are conceptualizing, instructors can track metaphors over time to see how students are understanding various ideas throughout a term. They represent both cognitive and metacognitive points of entry. They can thus serve as both learning tools as well as formative (along-the-way) and summative (end-of-term) assessment tools. This activity can be especially illuminating at the beginning of the study of a subject, to assess students' initial knowledge or assumptions, and then again at the end of the study to assess students' learning changes/gains. For example, in a course on global environmental politics, a metaphorical frame to use for the activity might be, "When I consider China's commitment of environmental care, I think it is a _____________because." Or in a course on climate change, a metaphorical frame could be, "For me, climate change is a _______________because _____________."

Metaphors We Live By (1980). George Lakoff & Mark Johnson. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.