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Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2024, 26(2): 93-107 |
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Nahid F, Talkhabi M, Barkhordari R. Presentation of knowledge conception: Teachers trainee metaphorical perception study; Tehran teacher training college’s cases
camps. Advances in Cognitive Sciences 2024; 26 (2) :93-107
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1689-en.html
URL: http://icssjournal.ir/article-1-1689-en.html
1- MA Mind, Brain, Education, Institute for Cognitive Science Studies, Tehran, Iran
2- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Management, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
3- Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
2- Associate Professor, Department of Educational Management, Farhangian University, Tehran, Iran
3- Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy of Education, Faculty of Psychology, Kharazmi University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract: (576 Views)
Introduction
According to the paradigm presented by Borg (2006), teacher perception consists of a set of beliefs, knowledge, theories, images, assumptions, metaphors, concepts and approaches, principles, decision-making, and thinking. Furthermore, teacher cognition studies have examined three aspects of teachers’ curriculum: teachers’ interactive thoughts, decisions, and theories and attitudes of teachers (7).
However, attitudes and mental states, in particular, are not easily accessible (11) because they are difficult to express, people lack awareness of those beliefs, and even people are unwilling to represent them for socio-political reasons (10). Hence, teaching-learning researchers use metaphors as a method, for example, apprenticeships (15) and professional development metaphors (17).
Besides, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) took these ideas one step further, arguing that metaphor is a perfectly common way of thinking that allows us to understand abstract areas of experience in terms of more concrete, embodied ones (22).
Through the analysis of applied metaphors, only a study of the metaphor of knowledge was conducted on university professors (20). Therefore, this study intends to understand Persian language teacher's understanding of the concept of “knowledge” by examining the following questions;
1. What are the metaphors of student-teacher representation of the concept of knowledge?
2. What are the implications for teachers’ metaphorical representation of knowledge in the field of teaching and learning?
Methods
In this study, the researchers try to display the participants’ perceptions, and the meaning they have attributed to the events are examined in depth and the perspective about the phenomenon in an unbiased manner (28), which is less focused on researcher interpretations and more on describing participants’ lived experiences.
The metaphorical phenomenon is used to further understand this descriptive design study. Thus, the research strategy is a case study because of the selection of a specific group of 24 available student-teachers. The interviews continue to achieve theoretical saturation. These volunteer students either completed or were in the final stages of their internship. Some questions were extracted from these interviews with the initial pilot study. After reviewing, a semi-structured interview form was developed in three sections (demographic, basic, and additional questions). Prior to the interview, participants were provided with general information about the research and asked to sign the consent form. One interviewer conducted all interviews, and each interview was recorded.
The transcripts were interviewed and coded several times. Codes were classified according to Kovecses (32), and the information classification has been reviewed several times. For the analysis of personal metaphors, each metaphor was used as a whole unit of analysis because the meanings of parts of the metaphor can be understood only through the text. Finally, a comprehensive description of the metaphors was provided (29). Furthermore, due to the reduced bias, triangulation strategies were used to evaluate the validity, and the results were reviewed by other research professors who have long-term experience in teaching both university courses and in the phenomenology and quantitative analysis. The conceptual metaphor analysis method based on the Pragglejaz Group method developed a method of metaphor recognition called MIP- (Metaphor identification procedure). This method has several steps: 1- Reading the text and getting a general understanding of the text. Identify lexical units of text and then find the contextual meaning of each lexical unit within the text. B) Finding a more basic meaning (objectively sensory, physical, or semantic older) (32). In the trial version of MAXQDA oftware (which runs fast in finding and classifying data), the transcripts of the interviews were reviewed and categorized in such a way that the “important statements” highlighted sentences or quotes that showed an understanding of the concept of knowledge. This is the stage of horizontalization from Mustakas’s (29) perspective.
Results
Data
According to the first research question: What metaphors represent the concept of knowledge by student-teachers? After removing unrelated metaphors, 339 metaphors were confirmed. Besides, the mappings under the heading 16 are the most metaphorical frequencies in the categories: “Knowledge is objects”, “Knowledge is the container”, “Knowledge is the path”, “Knowledge is the place”, ”Knowledge is human", "Knowledge is high", "Knowledge is plant", "Knowledge is motion", "Knowledge is building”, “Knowledge is time”, “Knowledge is light”, “Knowledge is matter”, “Knowledge is health”, “Knowledge is food”, “Knowledge is power”, including object, container and path mappings, with metaphors of “obtain, acquire, and book”, “transfer” and “Reach” was the most used.
According to the second question of the research, what are the implications for teaching and learning in the metaphorical representation of knowledge by teachers? (Table 1).
Table 1. Classification of Mappings and Perspectives. By Martinez Model (11).
Conclusion
From the cognitive linguistic point of view, the concept of knowledge is a complex and abstract concept in the minds of the student-teachers who have had minimal experience in the actual learning environment, respectively as object (acquisition, Obtaining), as container (transfer), as path (reach) has the most representation. Additionally, from a teaching-learning perspective, student-teachers represent knowledge from the individual’s mind and the learner, who has a passive and consuming role, through metaphorical perception. Therefore, the epistemological perspective of their predominant learning teaching can be regarded as instruction-ism. However, they also represented their perception of knowledge with other metaphors. Therefore, according to conceptual theory, perception, and understanding result from several mental spaces. Besides, in this study, little experience in teaching each have their own separate mental spaces, with metaphors arising from each mental space leading to a new genesis for each individual individually. Finally, the metaphorical analysis method has emerged among the student-teachers as the out-of-mind view of knowledge that will lead to knowledge-gathering rather than knowledge-building.
In conclusion, in light of these findings and conclusions, teachers need to be aware of their metaphorical perception of teaching-learning, and it is better to review, modify, and improve their own views on the subject. In addition, future research can examine the concept of knowledge from a metaphorical perspective, which is needed in the larger community of Persian language teachers. Moreover, future studies will examine the conceptual blended theory by considering different subject areas arising from different experiences.
Ethical considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The ethical considerations of this study encompassed acquiring written consent from all participants and supplying adequate information regarding the research to each individual. Throughout the study, we adhered to established ethical guidelines.
Authors’ Contributions
All three authors designed and prepared the study. The first author collected and prepared the data and prepared the text of the article. The second author performed the data analysis, and the third author was responsible for the final review of the study.
Funding
No financial assistance has been received from any organization. This research is taken from the MA thesis coded 195929 in Iran Doc.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to appreciate all participants and coordinators in this study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that they had no potential conflict of interest.
According to the paradigm presented by Borg (2006), teacher perception consists of a set of beliefs, knowledge, theories, images, assumptions, metaphors, concepts and approaches, principles, decision-making, and thinking. Furthermore, teacher cognition studies have examined three aspects of teachers’ curriculum: teachers’ interactive thoughts, decisions, and theories and attitudes of teachers (7).
However, attitudes and mental states, in particular, are not easily accessible (11) because they are difficult to express, people lack awareness of those beliefs, and even people are unwilling to represent them for socio-political reasons (10). Hence, teaching-learning researchers use metaphors as a method, for example, apprenticeships (15) and professional development metaphors (17).
Besides, conceptual metaphor theory (CMT) took these ideas one step further, arguing that metaphor is a perfectly common way of thinking that allows us to understand abstract areas of experience in terms of more concrete, embodied ones (22).
Through the analysis of applied metaphors, only a study of the metaphor of knowledge was conducted on university professors (20). Therefore, this study intends to understand Persian language teacher's understanding of the concept of “knowledge” by examining the following questions;
1. What are the metaphors of student-teacher representation of the concept of knowledge?
2. What are the implications for teachers’ metaphorical representation of knowledge in the field of teaching and learning?
Methods
In this study, the researchers try to display the participants’ perceptions, and the meaning they have attributed to the events are examined in depth and the perspective about the phenomenon in an unbiased manner (28), which is less focused on researcher interpretations and more on describing participants’ lived experiences.
The metaphorical phenomenon is used to further understand this descriptive design study. Thus, the research strategy is a case study because of the selection of a specific group of 24 available student-teachers. The interviews continue to achieve theoretical saturation. These volunteer students either completed or were in the final stages of their internship. Some questions were extracted from these interviews with the initial pilot study. After reviewing, a semi-structured interview form was developed in three sections (demographic, basic, and additional questions). Prior to the interview, participants were provided with general information about the research and asked to sign the consent form. One interviewer conducted all interviews, and each interview was recorded.
The transcripts were interviewed and coded several times. Codes were classified according to Kovecses (32), and the information classification has been reviewed several times. For the analysis of personal metaphors, each metaphor was used as a whole unit of analysis because the meanings of parts of the metaphor can be understood only through the text. Finally, a comprehensive description of the metaphors was provided (29). Furthermore, due to the reduced bias, triangulation strategies were used to evaluate the validity, and the results were reviewed by other research professors who have long-term experience in teaching both university courses and in the phenomenology and quantitative analysis. The conceptual metaphor analysis method based on the Pragglejaz Group method developed a method of metaphor recognition called MIP- (Metaphor identification procedure). This method has several steps: 1- Reading the text and getting a general understanding of the text. Identify lexical units of text and then find the contextual meaning of each lexical unit within the text. B) Finding a more basic meaning (objectively sensory, physical, or semantic older) (32). In the trial version of MAXQDA oftware (which runs fast in finding and classifying data), the transcripts of the interviews were reviewed and categorized in such a way that the “important statements” highlighted sentences or quotes that showed an understanding of the concept of knowledge. This is the stage of horizontalization from Mustakas’s (29) perspective.
Results
Data
According to the first research question: What metaphors represent the concept of knowledge by student-teachers? After removing unrelated metaphors, 339 metaphors were confirmed. Besides, the mappings under the heading 16 are the most metaphorical frequencies in the categories: “Knowledge is objects”, “Knowledge is the container”, “Knowledge is the path”, “Knowledge is the place”, ”Knowledge is human", "Knowledge is high", "Knowledge is plant", "Knowledge is motion", "Knowledge is building”, “Knowledge is time”, “Knowledge is light”, “Knowledge is matter”, “Knowledge is health”, “Knowledge is food”, “Knowledge is power”, including object, container and path mappings, with metaphors of “obtain, acquire, and book”, “transfer” and “Reach” was the most used.
According to the second question of the research, what are the implications for teaching and learning in the metaphorical representation of knowledge by teachers? (Table 1).
Table 1. Classification of Mappings and Perspectives. By Martinez Model (11).
| Supportive learning perspectives | Implicit meaning in teaching-learning | Interpreting metaphors from knowledge | Percentage mappings frequency | Classification by epistemological features |
| Piaget’s Cognitive Theory | Learning: Having a personal meaning | Knowledge is something within the mind of the active learner. | Human body, health, food, high (16%) | Cognitive process |
| Theory knowledge building brighter | Collaborative learning: The process of problem solving and reasoning leads to conceptual change | Knowledge is something outside the mind of the active learner. | Building, moving, route (30%) | Behaviorism |
| Skinner’s Theory of Behaviorism |
Teaching-learning to transfer knowledge | Knowledge is out of the mind of the passive learner. | Container, object, material, power, human (outer) lighting, (45%) | Social constructivism |
| Vygotsky’s theory of social learning | Learning: Constant change depending on the environment | Knowledge is variable. Between the inside and outside of the learner’s mind. | Plant, Time (9%) | Cognitive situated |
Conclusion
From the cognitive linguistic point of view, the concept of knowledge is a complex and abstract concept in the minds of the student-teachers who have had minimal experience in the actual learning environment, respectively as object (acquisition, Obtaining), as container (transfer), as path (reach) has the most representation. Additionally, from a teaching-learning perspective, student-teachers represent knowledge from the individual’s mind and the learner, who has a passive and consuming role, through metaphorical perception. Therefore, the epistemological perspective of their predominant learning teaching can be regarded as instruction-ism. However, they also represented their perception of knowledge with other metaphors. Therefore, according to conceptual theory, perception, and understanding result from several mental spaces. Besides, in this study, little experience in teaching each have their own separate mental spaces, with metaphors arising from each mental space leading to a new genesis for each individual individually. Finally, the metaphorical analysis method has emerged among the student-teachers as the out-of-mind view of knowledge that will lead to knowledge-gathering rather than knowledge-building.
In conclusion, in light of these findings and conclusions, teachers need to be aware of their metaphorical perception of teaching-learning, and it is better to review, modify, and improve their own views on the subject. In addition, future research can examine the concept of knowledge from a metaphorical perspective, which is needed in the larger community of Persian language teachers. Moreover, future studies will examine the conceptual blended theory by considering different subject areas arising from different experiences.
Ethical considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
The ethical considerations of this study encompassed acquiring written consent from all participants and supplying adequate information regarding the research to each individual. Throughout the study, we adhered to established ethical guidelines.
Authors’ Contributions
All three authors designed and prepared the study. The first author collected and prepared the data and prepared the text of the article. The second author performed the data analysis, and the third author was responsible for the final review of the study.
Funding
No financial assistance has been received from any organization. This research is taken from the MA thesis coded 195929 in Iran Doc.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to appreciate all participants and coordinators in this study.
Conflict of interest
The authors declared that they had no potential conflict of interest.
Type of Study: Research |
Received: 2024/06/12 | Accepted: 2024/08/27 | Published: 2024/11/3
Received: 2024/06/12 | Accepted: 2024/08/27 | Published: 2024/11/3
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