Research goals

This project aims to examine the metaphors and analogies used in Romanian science textbooks for lower secondary education (5th to 8th grade) to explain abstract scientific ideas and to communicate them to students.

To achieve this general goal, the project has three interrelated specific objectives:

1. To identify and classify science metaphors and analogies in Physics, Chemistry and Biology textbooks.

2. To examine how metaphors of scientific concepts are used by students and teachers in interaction.

3. To assess to what extent young students enrolled in lower secondary education understand or misunderstand metaphor used to explain and facilitate access to scientific knowledge.