This study examines the presence of three conceptual metaphors for fractions -- The measuring stick metaphor, Arithmetic is motion along a path, and Arithmetic is object construction -- in four common and popular Swedish mathematics textbook series for years 1-3. I analyse the introduction of fractions and the kinds of tasks students are given in…

Mathematically speaking, a "difference" is the result of a subtraction. However, when the number domain is extended from natural numbers to integers, the separation of the magnitude of a number from its value creates "different differences," where the connection to subtraction is no longer straightforward. Based on…

The aim of this article is to investigate students' meaning-making processes of multiple representations during a teaching sequence about the human body in lower secondary school. Two main influences are brought together to accomplish the analysis: on the one hand, theories on signs and representations as scaffoldings for learning and, on the…

This article explores the different ways in which a dance exergame can be used to teach dance in upper secondary school physical education. Particular attention is paid to the learning processes that students are involved in when the dance game is used as a teaching resource. A socio-cultural perspective on learning constitutes the analytical…

Background: Sustainable development, as an area of knowledge, appears in several different places in the curriculum and does not fit neatly within the scope of traditional subject areas. In many countries, including Sweden, it has long been upheld as an important tool for increasing understanding of, and dealing with, environmental problems. It is…

Thermodynamics, and in particular entropy, has been found to be challenging for students, not least due to its abstract character. Comparisons with more familiar and concrete domains, by means of analogy and metaphor, are commonly used in thermodynamics teaching, in particular the metaphor "entropy is disorder." However, this particular…

This study introduces an approach to providing corrective feedback to L2 learners termed analogy-based corrective feedback that is motivated by analogical learning theories and syntactic alignment in dialogue. Learners are presented with a structurally similar synonymous version of their output where the erroneous form is corrected, and they must…

Learning to talk science is an important aspect of learning to do science. Given that scientists' language frequently includes intentions and purposes in explanations of unobservable objects and events, teachers must interpret whether learners' use of such language reflects a scientific understanding or inaccurate anthropomorphism and teleology.…

Many studies have previously focused on how people with different levels of expertise solve physics problems. In early work, focus was on characterising differences between experts and novices and a key finding was the central role that propositionally expressed principles and laws play in expert, but not novice, problem-solving. A more recent…

A growing body of research has examined the experiential grounding of scientific thought and the role of experiential intuitive knowledge in science learning. Meanwhile, research in cognitive linguistics has identified many "conceptual metaphors" (CMs), metaphorical mappings between abstract concepts and experiential source domains,…

In a significant book, Cameron suggested that we study metaphor as "prosaics" (i.e. as a feature of mundane talk). In this article, by means of a few brief examples, we point to instances of such talk in the setting of preschool. We also discuss some opportunities for learning that such talk could offer children, and what the…

In this article, some findings from a study of teachers introducing poetry-making to children in the early years (children two to eight years-old) are reported. Empirical examples are analysed in terms of the poetic aspects that come into play when trying to construct poems and the challenges this presents to the children. Finally, some…

Ambiguity in group discussions as a resource for communication is studied. How students, aged 13-15 years, elaborate on the concept energy through dialogue is described. Group interviews were conducted with 15 hearing and 20 deaf students. Three probes were used to initiate discussions on different meanings of energy. The results show that the…