Metaphors as blueprints of thinking about teaching and learning

This study analyses the metaphorical conceptions of learning based on the reflections of 50 experienced teachers in an evening course on instructional psychology. The metaphors were achieved by collaboration in small groups. "Coreflection" of group members was well suited to promote metaphorical reconstructions of teachers tacit theories about learning. The results show that the majority of these teachers shares traditional metaphors depicting teaching and learning as transmission of knowledge, followed by a smaller group of teachers expressing constructivist metaphors. Only a minority seems to conceive of teaching and learning as a social process. These results are compared with metaphors formulated by 38 prospective teachers without classroom experience participating in a course on curriculum design. In further collaborations these metaphors should serve as stepping stones to broader and more profound conceptions of the nature of teaching and learning. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.