Metaphors We Teach By [Hardcover]

Description: Metaphors We Teach By helps teachers reflect on how the metaphors they use to think about education shape what happens in their classrooms and in their schools. Teaching and learning will differ in classrooms whose teachers think of students as plants to be nurtured from those who consider them as clay to be molded. Students will be assessed differently if teachers think of assessment as a blessing and as justice instead of as measurement. This volume examines dozens of such metaphors related to teaching and teachers, learning and learners, curriculum, assessment, gender, and matters of spirituality and faith. The book challenges teachers to embrace metaphors that fit their worldview and will improve teaching and learning in their classrooms. Endorsements: As a maven of metaphors myself, I am delighted with Metaphors We Teach By, which examines how metaphor informs and enhances the teaching life. Moving beyond the traditional 'sage on the stage and the guide by the side' formulation, the contributors to this volume concoct a rich stew of personal accounts, scholarly expertise, and metaphors ranging from oysters to gardens, superheroes to invisible thread. --Susan VanZanten, Seattle Pacific University Metaphors powerfully communicate how we view our roles, our work, and its ultimate purposes. This valuable book carefully examines the process through which we select these symbols in order to understand their influence and set the course of practice for the next generation of learners. --Jillian N. Lederhouse, Wheaton College Metaphors make our thoughts more lucid, connected, and multifaceted, structure our perceptions and understandings about life, and help us see things in new light. Thinking metaphorically about education and learning also enhances creativity. Badley and Van Brummelen have provided a rich resource, which will no doubt improve both teaching and learning for educators and students alike. --James Drexler, Covenant College Kudl¹