Use of analogy in learning physics: The role of representations

Previous studies have demonstrated that analogies can promote student learning in physics and can be productively taught to students to support their learning, under certain conditions. We build on these studies to explore the use of analogy by students in a large introductory college physics course. In the first large-scale study of its kind, we demonstrate that different analogies can lead to varied student reasoning. When different analogies were used to teach electromagnetic (EM) waves, we found that students explicitly mapped characteristics either of waves on strings or sound waves to EM waves, depending upon which analogy students were taught. We extend these results by investigating how students use analogies. Our findings suggest that representational format plays a key role in the use of analogy.

Figure 1

String (top), sound (middle), and EM (bottom) wave pictures from part 1 of the tutorial. These were added to the tutorial in the follow-up (fall) study.

Figure 2

EM wave picture from part 2 of the tutorial. This picture was used in both the initial and follow-up studies.

Figure 3

EM wave as presented on the post-test in both the initial and follow-up studies. Vertical antennas are labeled 1–4.

Figure 4

Post-test results for the initial study (spring, left) and follow-up study (fall, right). The top three answers ($1=2=3>4$, $1=2=4>3$, $1=2=3=4$) are shown below the horizontal axis. The analogy groups (sound, string, no-analogy) are indicated in the legend. Error bars are the standard error $(\sigma ∕\sqrt{n})$. The ∗ indicates the correct answer.

Figure 5

Left: Pictorial representations from the string (top) and sound (bottom) wave representation assessments. Right: Iconographic representations from the wave representation assessments for strings (top) and sound (bottom). The representations are labeled only for reference in this paper—the labels did not appear in the representation assessment.

Figure 6

Student responses to the motion question on the representation assessment. String group (left) and sound group (right). Initial study results (spring) are shown in the top two graphs; follow-up study results (fall) are shown in the bottom graphs. The choice of iconographic representation is shown below the horizontal axis. The three top answers (up/down, to the right, side-to-side) are represented by the directional arrows in the legend. We look for patterns of association between representation and answer. There was no association for string (${\chi }^2$: $p>0.3$), but significant association for sound (${\chi }^2$: $p<0.01$). The “∗” indicates the correct answer.