Metaphorical reasoning about genetics

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Abstract
This paper describes a study of how people use metaphors to make sense of scientific phenomena and ideas in a process of extended group discussion. Interviews involving reading an edited scientific text about DNA and then discussing a number of questions about various aspects of genetics were conducted with 14 primary school teachers in the London area. These questions explored puzzling aspects of genetics and went beyond the ideas given in the text, thus requiring information in the text to be combined with whatever the teachers already knew, in an active process of imaginative development of aspects of metaphors, to look for a fit or lack of fit with a partially understood phenomenon. The results discuss how different metaphorical models for genes were both assimilated and constructed, as well as how drawing parallels and analogies facilitate making connections between everyday pragmatic knowledge and scientific ideas.

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