This Tip focuses on the fact that we can use metaphor to create meaning by explaining something unfamiliar with something very familiar. It helps participants to understand complex concepts by illustrating their essence in terms they already understand.
For example, nurturing a team is like growing a tomato plant. It needs:
- the right environment- safe and supportive,
- stakes or a cage- the necessary tools and resources,
- sunlight – positive attention
- rain- encouraging words,
- protection from the wind- advocacy on the team’s behalf,
- etc.
Metaphor
Meaning is one of the four properties of learning that Dr. Madeline Hunter of UCLA identified in her Mastery Teaching Model. We can use metaphors to give meaning to complex or unfamiliar content.
Understand One Thing in Terms of Another
According to George Lakoff in Metaphors We Live By: “The essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another.” In other words, metaphor can give meaning to unfamiliar and/or complex technical information by explaining it in terms of more familiar and accessible situations or concepts.
Drawn from Any Shared Human Experience
Metaphors can be drawn from any shared human experience:
- family life,
- sports,
- games,
- movies,
- food,
- pets,
- cars,
- television,
- music,
- rites of passage,
- historical events,
- books,
- school,
- work,
- weather,
- childhood,
- travel,
- vacations,
- holidays,
- machines,
- nature,
- space, etc.
Metaphor Refines Program Content
Metaphor redefines the program content as a set of concepts, processes, or relationships. It also places it in an entirely different setting. For example, life can be viewed as a board game, an organization as a sailboat, and a rocky relationship as white water rafting.
In summary, metaphors create and/or build on common ground in order to establish and maintain a meaningful learning context.
